The President of Tunisia announces his intention to reform the Constitution with the Parliament suspended

With the Parliament suspended from its functions and in the midst of a pressing economic situation, the President of Tunisia, Kais Said, announced this Saturday night his intention to reform the Constitution approved in the country in 2014, three years after the Spring Arab. Said, a 63-year-old professor of Constitutional Law, already violated the Magna Carta on July 25 when he dismissed the prime minister, Hichem Mechichi, suspended the activity of Parliament for a month and lifted the immunity of the deputies. It did all of this based on article 80 of the Constitution, which authorizes the president to adopt "exceptional measures" in the event of "imminent danger to the country's institutions."

Said extended the suspension of Parliament indefinitely in August and this Saturday, claiming the ability to speak on behalf of the majority, assured that the Tunisian people reject the current Constitution. "Although I respect the Constitution, it is necessary to introduce changes in it," he added in statements to various local media.

Said also promised to form a new government "shortly", without specifying the date. One of his main advisers, Walid Hajjem, had told Reuters that the president intends to change the current political system, perhaps through a referendum. Everyone, inside and outside Tunisia, watches how this jurist demolishes day by day the democratic foundations of the only country in which the Arab Spring triumphed. But Said enjoys great popularity, especially among young people, fed up with a political class that has failed to offer them more solutions than police repression every time they have taken to the streets to demand work. So the political class is cautious in its criticism of Said.

Even the powerful UGTT union, the most powerful in the Arab world, with more than a million members in a country of 11.6 million inhabitants, measures its words very well before criticizing Said.

However, Said's progress on the pillars of the democratic system is of such magnitude that the general secretary of the UGTT, Nordín Tabubi, called this Saturday morning through a statement to organize legislative elections that allow for a new Parliament, before addressing any reform of the Constitution.

Said's response came on Saturday afternoon in the form of a crowd bath in the center of the capital and afterwards he declared to various local media that he will reform the Constitution and appoint a new government shortly.

"Arbitrary arrests"

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During the almost two months that Said has assumed full power in the country, the repression has escalated worryingly.

The NGO Human Rights Watch assures that, since July 25, three parliamentarians have been jailed for crimes related to freedom of expression, and at least 50 citizens have been detained, “arbitrarily”, under house arrest.

Among them are a former civil servant, a judge and three legislators.

"Furthermore," says Eric Goldstein, head of the organization in North Africa, "dozens of Tunisians are being arbitrarily banned from traveling, something that violates freedom of movement."

Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, visited Tunisia this Friday and met with Kais Said and with representatives of the main political parties and civil society. Borrell declared in an appearance before the media: "I have conveyed to the president [Kais Said] the European fears, fears regarding the preservation of the democratic heritage in Tunisia, which is the only one that can guarantee the stability and prosperity of the country."

Borrell said that the European Union will determine how to sustain and accompany the country's democracy, "based on the concrete measures that are adopted in the coming weeks." A day later, the Tunisian president responded harshly to Borrell's words: "Tunisia cannot accept to play the role of student waiting to receive lessons, notes or comments in its bulletin."

Meanwhile, the economic situation remains dire.

On Saturday, a young man blew himself up on the central Habib Burguiba avenue, as did the street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, who unleashed the Arab Spring in 2011. And as dozens of desperate citizens have done since then.

Many others continue to throw themselves into the sea.

This summer, between July and August, 8,000 irregular migrants from Tunisia have arrived in Italy.

It is 40% more than the previous year, according to the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (Fides).

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