07/26/2021 1:34 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 07/26/2021 1:34 PM
The main parliamentary parties in Tunisia have denounced as a "coup" the decision of the president, Kais Said, this Sunday, to dissolve the Assembly for 30 days and
remove the prime minister
, Hichem Mechichi, a measure that he justified in order to " save the country and restore social peace. "
Said's measures led to
clashes
in the vicinity of the Tunisian Parliament
on Monday
, a day after the president plunged the young Tunisian democracy into a political crisis.
The army also surrounded the seat of the presidency of the government, the Kasbah, and prevented the entry of its employees.
Measures
On Sunday night, after a day of demonstrations in many cities in the country, President Said announced that he was
"suspending" the activity of Parliament for 30 days
.
And he announced that he will take over the executive power "with the help of the government", after an emergency meeting with those responsible for the security forces, in the presidential palace of Cartago.
Soldiers cut off the streets of the Tunisian capital.
Photo: AP
In addition, he
dismissed the head of the government
, Hichem Mechichi, in a context of strong popular discontent over the management of the social and health crisis by the Executive.
The ruling
Islamist-oriented Ennahdha
party
harshly criticized Said's move, which he denounced as "a coup against the revolution and against the Constitution," according to a statement.
The president's decision was also reviled abroad.
Turkey, an ally of Ennahdha, called for the
restoration of "democratic legitimacy"
and Germany demanded the "return of constitutional order as quickly as possible".
Daughter of the Arab Spring
Berlin also demanded "respect for civil liberties, which is one of the most important achievements of
the Tunisian revolution"
of 2011, which is often presented as
the only successful one of the
Arab Spring.
Followers of the Tunisian president, in the streets of Tunis, Sunday night.
Photo: EFE
Several hundred supporters of Said and Ennahdha confronted each other on Monday with
stones and bottles in
front of Parliament in the city of Tunis, AFP journalists observed.
Rached Ghannouchi, head of Ennahdha and Speaker of Parliament, who had been parked in a vehicle in front of the closed door of Congress for hours, was
unable to enter the building
because the military deployed to guard the chamber prevented him from doing so.
"
We want to enter Parliament
! (...) We are the protectors of the Constitution," said Assembly Vice President Samira Chaouachi of the allied Qalb Tounes party to the soldiers deployed behind the closed door of Parliament, according to a video published by local media and that was disseminated on social networks.
"We are the protectors of the nation," replied one of the military, adding that he was limited to carrying out "orders."
These measures seek to "change the nature of the political regime in Tunisia and
transform it from a democratic parliamentary regime into a presidential
, individual and authoritarian
regime
," Ghannouchi said in a statement published on the official Ennahdha website.
Said declared that the Constitution does not allow him to dissolve Parliament but that it does allow him
to suspend its activity
, according to article 80, in case of "imminent danger".
Soldiers with supporters of the president in Tunisia.
Photo: EFE
This article applies
for 30 days,
after which the Constitutional Court must decide whether to extend its validity or not.
However, this institution has not yet been able to start up due to the
hectic political life
of Tunisia since the Constitution was approved in 2014.
Political bidding and coronavirus
Rached Ghannouchi and President Said have been immersed in
a political pulse
for six months, which has paralyzed the government and disturbed the public powers, amid the wave of COVID-19 infections that has hit Tunisia since the beginning of July.
With nearly 18,000 deaths from coronavirus, the country of 12 million people has
one of the worst death rates in
the world.
After Said's speech, thousands of Tunisians, angered by the power struggles and the government's questioned management of the social and health crisis,
took to the streets
despite a curfew, setting off fireworks and sounding their car horns in the capital Tunis and other cities.
After Saied's speech, thousands of Tunisians took to the streets.
Photo: EFE
"That's the president we like,"
exclaimed Nahla, a woman in her 30s draped in the Tunisian flag amid a crowd.
At his side, a Tunisian worried about the possible "birth of a new dictator."
In addition to Ennahdha, his coalition formations, Qalb Tounes and the nationalist Islamist Karama movement, also condemned Said's decisions.
In the opposition, the Corriente Democrática, a social democratic party that has supported Said on several occasions,
also rejected the measure
, although it blamed "popular tension and the social, economic and health crisis and the lack of horizons for the coalition in the future. power led by Ennahdha. "
AFP
ap