By Michel PicardPosted on 01-10-2019Modified on the 01-10-2019 at 16:38

On September 15, the first round of the presidential election in Tunisia brought to the second round two candidates that opposes everything. Two men who share one thing in common: standing up against the political class in place. Crossed portraits of Kaïs Saeid and Nabil Karoui.

From our correspondent in Tunisia,

Kaïs Saied and Nabil Karoui form a predictable and yet unexpected duet. The two men regularly pointed to the polls in recent weeks, but analysts themselves struggled to believe in this reversal of the political system in place.

Rejection of elites

" Voters have made a revolution within the framework of legality. They want something new. We need a new political thought , "said Kais Saied, the day after the first round. Carrying a moral requirement, he was able to convince a segment of the population, including many young people, who waited too long for the improvements hoped for after the revolution, and tired of the promises without continuation of the political class.
For its part, Nabil Karoui has multiplied the distribution of aid to the poorest to " remedy the deficiencies of the state and policies in place. "

Two distinct approaches, a conservative righteousness and a charitable action, for the same purpose: to meet the expectations of the disappointed of the system.

Course: a contractor against an academic

From modest families, the two men experienced very different trajectories before being in the running for this second round. Nabil Karoui, born in Bizerte in 1963, is a student with little inclination to schooling, but who will find his way after studying commerce in Marseille. He became commercial director of Canal + Horizon television in 1992, in Tunis. Then, he launched with his brother in 1996 a communication company that bears his name. A company that succeeds in the Maghreb markets at the time of the boom in mobile telephony. In 2007, he created Nessma TV, the first television channel in Tunisia today.

Five years older, Kaïs Saied, born in 1958, is a pure academic. Graduate of in-depth studies in public international law in Tunis, then in constitutional law, he then studied in Italy the human right. There follows a course of university teacher. First in Sousse in 1986 then in Tunis in 1999 where he will chair the center of constitutional law for democracy after having joined the International Academy of Constitutional Law. Retired recently, he taught at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of Tunis.

The two men are married. Kaïs Saied has three children. Nabil Karoui has two, including a son who killed himself in a road accident in 2016.

Two figures known to the general public

If they are neophytes on the front of the political scene, the two candidates are not yet unknown to the general public.

After the death of his son Khalil, Nabil Karoui Khalil Tounes association launched to help concretely people in distress. The members of the organization, which he sometimes accompanies in the field, collect donations and then crisscross Tunisia to distribute food and appliances to neglected populations. With the backing of the channel he founded, Nessma TV, the charity operation hits the mark and forgotten Tunisia is a benefactor in Karoui, who hosts a televised charity show exposing the extreme poverty that is unbearable. found in the heart of Tunisian homes.

Kaïs Saied is also known to many Tunisians, under a double hat. His many years of teaching in Sousse and Tunis have marked thousands of young graduates who have boasted the merits of their teacher during an underground campaign in recent weeks.
The man is a regular on the television sets that he skimmed after the revolution of 2011 and the establishment of the Constitution of 2014. Responding to the slightest invitation, he came to deliver his expertise as a constitutionalist and lawyer to to popularize for the small screen, the democratic transition.

Political path

Nabil Karoui comes from circles of power. After the revolution, his television channel invites and puts Beji Caïd Essebsi in orbit at a time when the country was looking for a figure of the father to ensure the difficult democratic transition.

Later, we find the 56-year-old businessman among the co-founders of the party Nidaa Tounes , founded to oppose political Islam, which will sweep the three presidencies after the 2014 elections: Republic, Assembly and Government.
Favoring his affairs in politics, Nabil Karoui kept from this period of strong ties in political circles, even if he openly positioned against them. His imprisonment came to support his image of anti-system candidate, disturbing the power after having yet rubbed him.

No political history on the other hand for Kaïs Saïed. True " political UFO ", he has always refused to take a stand for any party and wants to cultivate his image of man out of system. He went so far as to refuse the public money to which he was legally entitled to campaign.

Disagreements on the merits

The 61-year-old jurist does not hide an assumed conservatism. There is no question of decriminalizing homosexuality or abolishing the death penalty. On these issues of society, he fears " foreign pressures to change Tunisia in a direction contrary to its values. Idealist, his critics are bent on the omnipotence of the central state that he wants to change to establish a decentralized model to " restore power to the people through local assemblies. "

The communication magnate boasts of setting up a large " anti-poverty council ". His priority, give hope and food to the forgotten system.

An easy denigration

Each of the two candidates is the subject of smear campaigns.
When Kaïs Saied is called Salafist, Nabil Karoui is called mafia.
A photo of the academic drinking coffee with a former cadre of the banned Salafist movement Hizb ut-Tahrir was controversial, before the person questioned " should I ask permission to meet someone who does not?" is not outlaw ? "

The businessman imprisoned on suspicion of money laundering and tax fraud, often compared to Silvio Berlusconi, who owns a third of his chain according to RSF, has repeatedly denounced a judicial calendar to political orders. " This case for which I am pursued dates back several years and it comes out to stop when the polls give me finalist, " he said last May.

It was enough for social networks to rush on these two themes to discredit one or the other suitors at the palace of Carthage.

► See also: Tunisia: fighting poverty and corruption, a priority for voters

►To listen too: Tunisia: the renewed interest of young people to vote

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