Unpublished debate between the finalists of the presidential election in Tunisia

On the one hand, an austere specialist on constitutional law, on the other, a businessman who cleaves easily. Kaïs Saïed and Nabil Karoui - just out of prison - clash on Friday, October 11, during an unprecedented debate expected in Tunisia two days before the presidential election.

"This is a debate between two candidates to the antipodes", analyzes Lilia Blaise, correspondent of France 24 in Tunisia. "On the one hand, Kaïs Saïed, very classical, who expresses himself in literary Arabic, and on the other hand Nabil Karoui, who speaks Derja, the Tunisian dialect, which is more voluble, less settled."

The televised duel, announced Wednesday after the release of Nabil Karoui, is a first in the pioneer country of the Arab Spring, and was logically on the front page of the Tunisian press Friday.

"Finally ... the debate!", Titled Al Chourouk, "Tonight or Never," wrote Le Temps. The newspaper Al Maghreb explained, meanwhile, that face-to-face between two candidates to the antipodes must "allow the seven million Tunisian voters to know who deserves their trust."

In the first round of presidential elections at the beginning of October, the two outsiders came in first, to the detriment of the political elite: Kaïs Saïed won 18.4% of the vote against 15.6% for Nabil Karoui.

The revolution by law in the defense of the poor

Kaïs Saïed proposes a radical decentralization of power and a revolution through law, his favorite theme. It takes up slogans of the 2011 revolution, calling for giving back "power to the people" while remaining very legalistic, which earned him to be widely acclaimed by students, including those who were his.

Nabil Karoui, who founded with his brother Ghazi one of the main television channels in the country, Nessma, has made the defense of the poorest his workhorse, willingly taking the lyrical register. He presents himself as the "father" of the "big family" of his constituents.

The seven million Tunisian voters return to the polls Sunday for the third time in a month, in a difficult economic context, which fuels a growing social discontent.

With AFP