Tunisia: the Constitution called into question
Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed, in October 2019, during his swearing in, in Tunis.
REUTERS - Zoubeir Souissi
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
While the Tunisian president has decided to extend his exceptional powers "
until further notice
", according to the terms of his press release on Monday evening, a debate is taking place in Tunisia.
Now that Parliament is frozen indefinitely, what will be the fate of the 2014 Constitution?
Should the country adopt a new fundamental text?
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With our correspondent in Tunis,
Samira Souilem
Adopted with ululations at the time, it is now doomed to complaining.
The 2014 Constitution - the first of the democratic era in Tunisia - is accused of having led the country into a political impasse.
Salwa Hamrouni, professor of constitutional law, explains why.
: “
The text suffers from a congenital handicap, it is that there was this clear desire to behead the president.
By precisely wanting to avoid the presidential regime, we gave too much power without responsibilities to the Assembly.
An Assembly now frozen for an indefinite period.
To avoid experiencing the same blockages again, the question of a constitutional revision therefore arises in Tunisia.
A process that may take some time.
“
What is needed for there to be a revision is an Assembly with a different political face that accepts the idea of the revision and decides first to elect the members of the Constitutional Court so that the president himself does it and the judicial council does it.
At this point, the revision becomes thinkable
”, continues Salwa Hamrouni.
Several parties are now calling for early legislative elections to be held.
President Kaïs Saïed, who is due to speak in the coming days, will perhaps put an end to the suspense which is beginning to take hold of the country.
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