Tunisia: President Kaïs Saïed dismisses Prime Minister and suspends Parliament's work
Kaïs Saïed, President of the Tunisian Republic.
Anis Mili / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed announced this Sunday evening that he was suspending the work of Parliament and dismissing the head of government Hichem Mechichi from office, after a day of demonstrations against Tunisian leaders.
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With our correspondent in Tunis,
Lilia Blaise
Horns in the streets and Tunisians coming out in full curfew to celebrate or question what happened on Sunday evening. After a day of demonstrations against the power in place, the President of the Republic declared via his Facebook page that he was dismissing Hichem Mechichi, the head of government, and that he was going to name a successor so that he could appoint a new team ministerial in the days to come.
“
We are going to announce other measures to save Tunisia. The Tunisian people must continue their revolution in all legitimacy and we will apply the law,
”he declared after an emergency meeting at the Carthage palace with officials of the security forces. "
We are going through very delicate moments in the history of Tunisia,
" added the Head of State.
"
This is neither a suspension of the Constitution nor an exit from constitutional legitimacy, we are working within the framework of the law
", he assured by relying on article 80 of the Constitution which allows him to take exceptional measures in the event of imminent danger to the country.
But the text is not clear on these measures, and nothing is said on the dismissal of the head of government, the lifting of the immunity of the deputies, or the freeze of the work of the Parliament for a month, like the said Kaïs Saïed.
According to the text, the president must also refer it to the Constitutional Court, which does not currently exist in Tunisia.
The Tunisian president has been engaged for months in a standoff with the main parliamentary party, Ennahdha. The latter reacted immediately after the declarations of the Head of State, via a press release on his Facebook page: for the Islamist party it is “
a coup d'état against the revolution and against the Constitution
”, stressing that its "
supporters (...) as well as the Tunisian people will defend the revolution
".
Currently, the reactions of Tunisians are mixed, not knowing whether they are witnessing a coup or a new breath in the face of the political deadlock that had lasted for months.
However, after these announcements, hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets to show their joy, as witnessed by Hena Shenaoui.
This resident of the capital had demonstrated a few hours earlier.
Hena Shenaoui: people are "very happy, they are celebrating"
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Tunisia
Kaïs Saïed