Fishermen were the first to respond after families raised the alarm. Without any concrete action taken by authorities, fishermen set off in search of those who had disappeared at sea. Meanwhile, on land, resentment boils over in the city of Zarzis. Report.
After a fake coup d’état that was justified by its supposed constitutionality, a fake national consultation which failed to mobilize even a fourth of his voters in 2019, a fake national dialogue which merely featured a chorus of yes-men, Kais Saied has made haste to hatch out a fake constitution. The president submitted the draft just 25 days before a referendum in which voters are invited to approve or reject this fundamental text.
Several months before the referendum, Kais Saied has issued a decree-law to change the composition of the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) council. Members of the authority responsible for supervising elections will now be appointed by presidential decree. The timing of this amendment has prompted divergent opinions. Is the ISIE’s independence no more?
Launched on January 15, President Kais Saied’s national consultation has been presented as a democratic means to sound out the Tunisian people. That this mechanism remains unevenly accessible to citizens appears not to have shaken the president’s will to see his project through to the end.
January 14, 2022, marked the eleventh year Tunisia has initiated what can be referred to as a ‘democratic process’. The state of play is now drastically different compared to a decade ago, to the extent an observer should ask: what does January 14 represent for Tunisians in 2022, if anything at all?
New political groupings, parties, and movements have launched or gained prominence in the wake of President Kais Saied’s decision on July 25 to suspend Parliament, dismiss the previous government, and concentrate powers under the presidency. Meshkal/Nawaat spoke with members or representatives of several of these groups shortly after July 25; they said that the president’s decisions created a new political environment with new conditions ripe for making the changes they want to see. All of them strongly criticized or denounced the political system ante July 25 as undemocratic.
Judiciary officials are under fire from President Kais Saied. Saied does not mince his words when it comes to the country’s magistrates, reproaching them for complicity with all kinds of corrupt individuals. Accused of promoting impunity, magistrates have defended themselves by pointing to political interference in their domain. It’s open war on a battlefield where needed reforms have been blocked.
On Sunday, September 26, thousands of people, close to Ennahdha party and its allies, demonstrated in downtown Tunis against President Kais Saied and his latest decision extending his exceptional powers and suspending parts of the constitution. Thousands assembled in front of the National Theater on Habib Bourguiba Avenue from about 10:00 until 16:00 to denounce the recent decisions, which they consider illegitimate, calling it a “coup” and a step back towards dictatorship.
Since the president’s sweeping decisions announced on July 25, Ennahdha member Radwan Masmoudi has waged a media war against Kais Saied. A controversial figure, Masmoudi has long juggled between his activities in civil society and in politics. And this is not the first time that his statements have elicited so much controversy and raised questions about his connections both within and outside of Tunisia.
On July 25th, many Tunisians took it to the streets to protest against the political class and the consecutive failing governments. On the same day, president Kais Saied invoked article 80 of the Constitution. He sacked the head of government, froze the parliament and lifted immunity of its members. Foreign analysts ran to the conclusion that what was happening was a coup and Tunisia’s fragile and nascent democracy was threatened. In this special episode, we’ll go back to what happened on July 25th, its context and the roots of the situation.
Accusations of coups d’etat in Tunisia have multiplied along with the political crises and institutional delays that the country has witnessed over the past ten years.
Sunday’s protests are now better known by the Presidential decisions they seemingly helped prompt: a freezing of Parliament, a dismissal of Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, and the lifting of Parliamentary immunity in what critics of President Kais Saied have called a coup.
In recent months, private polling indicates a surge in popularity for the Free Destourian Party (or Free Constitutional Party, PDL by its French acronym). In many ways the PDL has fashioned itself as a new iteration of Ben Ali and the former regime’s single ruling Constitutional Rally Party (or RCD), of which PDL president Abir Moussi was once Assistant Secretary General in Charge of Women. But when Meshkal/Nawaat went to the PDL headquarters in the Kheireddine Pacha neighborhood of Tunis on March 12 to ask about the party’s rising popularity, they were met by a round, bald man in a dark navy suit: Moussi’s bodyguard.
In recent weeks, political parties have taken to the streets for rallies and demonstrations. The move from parliamentary chambers to downtown avenues follows weeks of unrest in January and February, confrontations between demonstrators and police, mass arrests and torture of detainees, and disagreements between President Kais Saied and Prime Minister (PM) Hichem Mechichi over the PM’s proposed ministerial reshuffle. The new party mobilizations reflects what one Ennahdha party official has called a “sign of crisis.”
Ten years after Tunisia’s revolution, a group of young activists set out to sea, on a route used for irregular migration. As they sail along they discuss some of the most important issues they have confronted over the past decade.
The government led by Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, which was approved in a parliamentary vote of confidence on September 2, 2020, has not yet succeeded in passing any laws that it has proposed to parliament. Nearly 100 days in, the government’s proposed bills have been withdrawn following opposition either in parliament or civil society. Now, as it faces the task of passing a budget, the government’s challenges stem from tensions within and between the coalitions and constituencies holding it up, analysts and political commentators say.
Ten years after Tunisia’s revolution, the Tunisian Statehas still not managed to recover assets held overseas. Despite of the legal arsenal set up for this task, the list of assets recovered still falls short of expectations. Without any apparent regard for the authorities already set up for the job, on October 22 President Kais Saied issued a decree for the creation of a committee within the Office of the President tasked with recovering money and assets held abroad. The initiative has not gone unnoticed.
On September 5, after months of flirting, the Al-Karama parliamentary coalition announced its alliance with the Qalb Tounes party. The two parliamentary blocs finally decided to confess their love in a joint vote of confidence for Mechichi’s government.
