On November 22, 2012, the late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi issued a constitutional declaration immunizing his decisions from appeal to the judiciary, which led to the rejection and anger of the political forces that accused Morsi of seeking to establish an authoritarian and tyrannical rule.
This constitutional declaration later paved the way for the overthrow of the president and an end to the emerging democratic experiment in Egypt after the July 3, 2013 coup.
Something much worse happened in Tunisia on the 25th of this month, when President Kais Saied suspended the elected parliament, lifted the immunity of deputies, dismissed the government, appointed himself as attorney general, and threatened anyone who violated these measures with punishment.
The next day, a curfew was imposed, and the media was attacked, as happened with the Al-Jazeera office.
It is difficult not to describe what Said has done since July 25 until now, with something else, but it is a coup against the nascent democratic experiment, and a coup against the constitution, on which the people’s referendum was held in January 2014. Said took advantage of the deteriorating economic and social conditions in order to consolidate A new situation in which the presidency and not the parliament and the government have the upper hand.
Since that time, opinions have been divided between those who consider what Said has done to correct the course of the revolution that took place 10 years ago and try to get the country out of the severe economic and social crisis it is going through, and those who consider it a constitutional coup against the revolution as it granted extraordinary powers to the president.
In fact, it is difficult to consider what Said did correct the course of the revolution, for several reasons. First, he attacked the most important gains of the revolution, which is the representation of the will of the people through elected institutions such as parliament and the government. The parliament that was suspended came through free and fair elections in 2019, in which nearly 41.3% of voters participated. The second is that it is not possible to correct the course of the revolution by giving the president wide powers that make him the ruler of the political scene in the absence of Parliament and the absence of the Constitutional Court. Thus, there is no control or accountability over Said's decisions and actions. Third, and most importantly, the steps taken by Said contradict the constitution. Although he justified his unilateral measures in accordance with Article 80 of the Constitution, which calls for exceptional measures to be taken in the event of an imminent threat to the country's entity, security, and independence, it also stipulates that Parliament remains in permanent session throughout this period.It is also necessary to consult the head of government and the Speaker of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People. Which did not happen, as Saeed suspended parliament in flagrant violation of the constitution.
Finally, any claim to support the revolution is not through undermining democratic life, but through more democratic measures that ensure that none of the authorities dominates the other, and that the will of the citizens is not infringed, whatever the reasons.
It is true that the social and economic conditions in Tunisia have reached unprecedented levels of deterioration, especially with the repercussions of Covid-19 and the high number of casualties and deaths, but this is not by undermining state institutions, but rather by supporting and strengthening them to confront this crisis.
It is difficult not to describe what Said has done since July 25 until now, with something else, but it is a coup against the nascent democratic experiment, and a coup against the constitution, on which the people’s referendum was held in January 2014. Said took advantage of the deteriorating economic and social conditions in order to consolidate A new situation in which the presidency and not the parliament and the government have the upper hand.
The coup was made over many months, whether through the continuous clash between Saeed on the one hand, and Parliament and the government on the other hand, or through his disruption of the decisions and legislation that Parliament tried to pass and Saeed’s rejection, such as the law forming the Constitutional Court.
Last May, Middle East Eye revealed a leaked document that the president is planning to stage a constitutional coup in favor of the presidency and arrest a number of his political opponents, especially the Ennahda movement. What was stated in that document actually happened two months after it was leaked.
Said strives tirelessly to change the balance of power in Tunisia, and redefine the rules of the political game so that he has the upper hand and not any other institutions.
Since he came to power, he has not been satisfied with the nature of the political system that distributes powers between the presidency, parliament and the government.
Therefore, the formation of the governments of Elias Fakhfakh and Hisham al-Mashishi more than once.
He also expressed, on more than one occasion, his intense discontent and "disgust" with the political class, and he wished to get rid of it in any way as it was an obstacle to achieving his reform program.
Whoever follows Said’s political discourse and behavior since he came to power in October 2019 discovers that he is a new authoritarian project in the region, and that he is following in the footsteps of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the July 3 coup, which aborted the democratic experiment in Egypt and committed horrific human rights violations. Human.
Perhaps it is not surprising Saeed's visit to Cairo and Sisi's meeting last April, when they held separate talks, and no one knows what transpired during them. Even more than that, the fingerprints of the Emirates are clear on Saeed's coup, both in terms of form and content. Over the past years, the UAE has funded negative propaganda campaigns against the Tunisian revolution, and helped some corrupt politicians affiliated with the Ben Ali regime, such as Representative Abeer Moussa, to sabotage the political process, especially in Parliament, and disrupt its work so that it appears powerless in front of the masses. Overthrowing the Islamists in the Middle East is a fundamental and strategic goal of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, who is spending billions to support Arab authoritarian regimes. The UAE is trying to reproduce the experience of the "strong authoritarian ruler" in Tunisia as it did before, and is still, with Sisi in Egypt and Haftar in Libya.
Saeed reads from the same book tyranny and coups, and uses the same language and tactics that Sisi used to gain power, the most important of which are populist rhetoric and inflating economic and social conditions in order to justify his exceptional measures, investing in economic and social crises, distorting ideological opponents, especially Islamists, strengthening the presidency, relying on institutions Security and intelligence, especially the army, the threat to use force and weapons with violators, alliance with counter-revolutionary forces such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, etc.
Despite the differences between the Egyptian and Tunisian cases, the goal is the same: to consolidate the image of a strong ruler who can rule alone without the need for any other institutions.
Perhaps it should be remembered that Tunisia's history of coups and authoritarian autocracy is much greater than its history of democratic rule.
Habib Bourguiba ruled the country from the mid-1950s until the late 1980s through a repressive authoritarian rule.
In 1987, former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali overthrew the president, who was ill at the time, took power and established one of the most repressive and authoritarian regimes in the Arab region until it was overthrown in the Jasmine Revolution in 2011.
So, why is it surprising that Saeed would return to the same old path and establish a new authoritarian rule with a populist flavour?!