DEMONSTRATION: Hundreds of protesters gathered in Tunisia’s capital Tunis demanding that the government go and dissolve parliament. Later Sunday, the country’s president announced that the prime minister would be fired and that parliament would be suspended. Photo: Hassene Dridi / AP / NTB
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Tunisian forces clashed with protesters outside parliament on Monday after President Kais Saied sent home elected officials and fired the prime minister.
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The backdrop for the president’s intervention is nationwide unrest and demonstrations in the country against economic disability and the crisis triggered by the corona.
President Kais Saied has suspended the country’s National Assembly for 30 days. The decision was announced on Sunday night and welcomed by his supporters with shouts of joy, car honking and waving Tunisian flags.
Thousands defied the corona ban and the suffocating heat to give the president his support.
Reactions
The president’s move has sparked strong reactions in the Middle East region, and the Turkish prime minister says he is deeply concerned and calls for democratic legitimacy to be restored in Tunisia.
The main ruling party, the moderate Islamist movement Ennahda, calls the decision a coup, and leader Rachid Ghannouchi has staged a sit-down campaign in front of parliament since he was denied access to the building.
He promised the parliament would continue its work elsewhere.
– The constitution does not allow the parliament to be dissolved, but it allows for the work to be suspended, said the president with reference to section 80 which states that such measures can be used in cases of “imminent danger”.
—-APPEALS: Several protesters were arrested in Sunday’s protest against the Tunisian government and elected officials. Photo: Hassene Dridi / AP / NTB
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Takes over
President Saied said on Sunday that he would take over the role of executive with the help of a government led by a prime minister he himself would appoint. Following the president’s announcement, army units were deployed at strategic locations in the capital Tunis.
On Monday, the TV channel Al Jazeera reports that the police have stormed their premises in Tunis.
Saied’s dramatic decision was made despite the fact that the constitution anchors a parliamentary democracy and limits the power of the president to issues related to security and diplomacy.
The crisis reaches its tentative climax after a long stalemate between the president and Rachid Ghannouchi, a tug of war that has created major problems for the fight against the pandemic. Tunisia currently has one of the highest levels of infection in the world. Saied was elected in 2019 and has since been at odds with the leader of parliament.
—-CONTROL: The police have called around the National Assembly in Tunisia. Photo: AP / NTB
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Extensive demonstrations
Earlier Sunday, there were demonstrations in several cities against the economic crisis, rising unemployment, corruption and the government’s handling of the corona crisis in the North African country. There were protests in the cities of Gafsa, Kairouan, Monastir, Sousse and Tozeur.
The constitution from 2014 states that power in the country shall be divided between the president, the prime minister and the national assembly. Tunisia’s ruling party describes the president’s decision as a coup attempt.
Since the 2011 revolution that overthrew dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has been plagued by political unrest and an inability to form stable and effective governments. Since 2011, the country has had nine governments, some of them for only a few months.
Tunisia has been overwhelmed by the corona crisis, which has claimed the lives of more than 18,000 of the country’s 12 million people.
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