Tunisian President Kais Saied issued new orders relieving senior officials, after civil associations and organizations called on him to draw up a road map for a way out of the crisis, not exceeding 30 days, while the Ennahda movement called on him to retract his recent decisions.
In turn, Rached Ghannouchi, the speaker of the Tunisian parliament and head of the Ennahda movement - whose activities the president announced the freezing of his activities - said that things do not bode well on the second day of what he called the new era.
Ghannouchi added that the parliament was closed by a tank, and the offices of a number of televisions and media were confiscated, and that he hoped the president would stop what he called "the path of deterioration towards constitutional dictatorship."
He said that dictatorship does not produce a cure, but rather it is the greatest danger.
He pointed out that he does not consider that the target is one party, Ennahda, but rather the democratic system that guarantees the separation of powers. Therefore, the movement rejected the actions of President Qais Saeed, and that most of the political arena refuses to sacrifice democracy.
In turn, Human Rights Watch said that Tunisian President Kais Saied should guarantee the rights of all Tunisians and cancel all arbitrary decisions taken since the announcement of the measures taken on July 25 that concentrated the authorities in his office.
She added that the president said that he had the constitutional backing to control enormous powers, but what followed immediately was the police targeting journalists, and this does not bode well for human rights.
Human Rights Watch explained that President Saeed says that Article 80 of the constitution permits the suspension of parliament, while this chapter stipulates that parliament must remain in session permanently.
The organization stated that 20 policemen without uniforms raided Al Jazeera's office, and demanded that journalists leave and not return later, and stressed that President Saeed should allow the media - including Al Jazeera - to practice their work freely, and announce that he will not allow any violation of the right of all media to criticize his policies.
exemptions
Late yesterday, Tuesday, the Tunisian presidency announced the issuance of a presidential order to terminate the duties of several officials, including Al-Muizz Lidin Allah Al-Muqaddam, Director of the Office of the dismissed Prime Minister Hisham Al-Mashishi, and the Secretary General of the Government Walid Al-Dhahabi, and all the advisors to the dismissed Prime Minister, namely Rashad bin Ramadan, Salim Al-Tisawi and Mufdi Al-Masdi Abdul Razzaq Al-Kilani, head of the General Authority for Martyrs and Wounded People of the Revolution and Terrorist Operations.
The Tunisian president said that the measures he took are temporary, and that they came due to the deepening of the crisis, as he described it.
Said added - during his meeting with representatives of local organizations, including the Tunisian Labor Union - that freedoms will not be affected in any way.
A police car and an army vehicle block the side entrance to the Tunisian Parliament, following the decisions of President Kais Saied (European)
After the meeting with Said, the Dean of Lawyers in Tunisia, Ibrahim Bouderbala, told Al Jazeera, "I expressed to President Said our concerns over the situation of freedoms."
Bouderbala added that the president assured the national organizations that he might shorten the period of application of the exceptional measures, and that he expressed his intention to form a government as soon as possible, and also committed himself to prosecuting those involved in corruption.
"The president only expressed his intentions and commitments to us, but he did not present us with a concrete road map," he said.
Bouderbala explained that the president insisted during the meeting on calm and his readiness for dialogue, but not with those involved in corruption, he said.
organizations statement بيان
And yesterday, Tuesday, 7 Tunisian associations and organizations stressed - in a joint statement - that the map in question should relate to urgent issues, such as fighting the Corona virus pandemic, reviewing the electoral law and the political system, and fighting corruption.
These organizations are: the National Syndicate of Journalists, the General Labor Union, the National Lawyers' Association, the Democratic Women's Association, the Judges' Association, the League for the Defense of Human Rights, and the Economic and Social Rights Forum.
Crowds in front of the Tunisian parliament between defenders of legitimacy and supporters of President Said's decisions (Al Jazeera)
In their joint statement, the organizations warned against any unjustified extension, stressing the need to adhere to the one-month period to end the work with exceptional measures, and to gather powers in the hands of the president, and called for respect for the independence of the judiciary so that he could restore its role and work independently to expedite the opening of all files, especially those related to assassinations, terrorism and corruption.
Judiciary
The Judges Association called on the President of the Republic to expedite the termination of the exceptional measures, and to disclose the mechanisms for resuming the democratic process.
The association considered - in a statement - that the crisis will be resolved after invoking constitutional legitimacy, and respecting the independence of the Public Prosecution.
The Assembly also called on the Public Prosecution to play its role in protecting society and the state from crime, especially those related to crimes of corruption and terrorism, and to pursue its perpetrators, according to the statement.
Earlier, the Supreme Judicial Council called for the judiciary to be distanced from all political quarrels.
In a statement following a meeting with his representatives, President Saeed, the council described the judges as independent, and that the public prosecution is part of the justice judiciary, and that it exercises its functions within the scope of what is required by the legal texts in force.
This came after Saeed announced, last Sunday, among the exceptional measures that he resorted to, his intention to head the public prosecution, in addition to dissolving the government and freezing the work of Parliament.
sentence of decisions
Saeed had decided, on Monday, to suspend work in state institutions for two days, starting from Tuesday, after freezing the competencies of Parliament and relieving the Prime Minister of his duties, which caused a political crisis in the country.
This comes in conjunction with Saeed's announcement of imposing a night curfew for a month after his sudden decisions last Sunday that included freezing the powers of Parliament and relieving the Prime Minister of his duties, provided that he himself assumes the executive authority with the help of a government whose president is appointed, which is rejected by most political forces.
The president had said the day before yesterday - Monday - during a meeting with the heads of a number of professional organizations - that what he had done was not a coup, but measures according to the constitution after the country had reached an unacceptable level, as he put it.
Said had justified his decisions to suspend the work of Parliament and dissolve the government based on Article 80, which authorizes the president of the country to adopt exceptional decisions in the event of an imminent danger threatening Tunisia.
The position of the Renaissance
On the other hand, the Ennahda movement called on the president to retract the exceptional decisions he took last Sunday, and to address the challenges and difficulties facing Tunisia within the constitutional and legal framework, with the need to resume the work of the Assembly of People's Representatives.
Ennahda called for a national dialogue to get out of the crisis, and said in a statement - after an emergency meeting of its executive office - that the movement "calls on political and civil forces to intensify consultations on the latest developments in order to preserve democratic gains," calling for a return as soon as possible to constitutional conditions and normal and legal conduct. For state institutions and cabinets.
On Tuesday morning, calm prevailed in the vicinity of the parliament headquarters and the main streets of the capital, Tunis, with Said's decisions related to the announcement of exceptional measures in the country entering their second day.
Bardo Square (in front of the parliament headquarters) seemed almost empty of pedestrians, at a time when security units deployed in its vicinity to secure the area, and the perimeter of Parliament was closed after the withdrawal of numbers of supporters of the president and who rejected his decisions from the place after the curfew decision entered into force.
On Monday, Ennahda called on its supporters to withdraw from the parliament headquarters to give priority to the national interest, as it described it, after the scene witnessed skirmishes yesterday between the movement's supporters and Saeed's supporters.
Parliamentary blocs
Most of the parliamentary blocs opposed the exceptional decisions of the President of the Republic, as Ennahda (53 deputies out of 217) considered them a coup, and the Heart of Tunisia bloc (29 deputies) considered them a grave breach of the constitution, and the Democratic Current bloc (22 deputies) rejected the consequences. The "Dignity Coalition" bloc (18 seats) described it as invalid, while the "People's Movement" (15 deputies) supported it.
In a subsequent statement, the parliament - headed by the leader of the Ennahda movement, Rashid Ghannouchi - also strongly condemned the president's decisions, and announced their rejection.
Saeed's decisions came as a result of protests in several governorates at the call of activists who demanded the overthrow of the ruling system and accused the opposition of failure, in light of political, economic and health crises.
Diplomatic positions
Early in the morning on Wednesday, the Tunisian Foreign Ministry said that Foreign Minister Othman Al-Jarandi telephoned his counterparts in Turkey, France, Italy, Germany, the European Union and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to assure them that Tunisia intends to move forward on the democratic path.
The statement added that the minister explained to them that the exceptional measures are temporary, and that his counterparts pledged to continue supporting the emerging democracy.
For its part, the British Foreign Office said that the solution in Tunisia is achieved only through the principles of democracy, transparency, human rights and freedom of expression, and called on all parties to protect the democratic gains of the 2011 revolution.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said in a statement that it is following the developments in Tunisia, and respects everything related to Tunisian internal affairs and considers it a sovereign matter.
The statement reiterated its support for all that supports Tunisia's security and stability, and said that the Kingdom affirms its confidence in the Tunisian leadership to overcome these conditions and to achieve a decent life and prosperity for the Tunisian people.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry called on the international community to stand by Tunisia in these circumstances to face its health and economic challenges.
In a related context, the Tunisian presidency said yesterday, Tuesday, that President Said had received a verbal message from his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, conveyed to him by Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra, and reported that the President met with Minister Lamamra at the Carthage Palace during a visit to the country by a special envoy from Tebboune.
Said also met with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, who is visiting the country, a special envoy who conveyed a verbal message from King Mohammed VI, according to the Tunisian presidency.
He did not reveal the content of the two verbal messages that the Tunisian president received from his Algerian counterpart and the King of Morocco.
It is noteworthy that the recent events in Tunisia come at a time when the country has been suffering for months from a political and economic crisis, to which was added in the recent period the deterioration of the epidemiological situation due to the huge jump in the victims of the emerging Corona virus pandemic.