Several thousand demonstrators gathered on Sunday near the Tunisian Parliament, frozen for more than three months, to protest again against President Kais Saied's decision to assume full powers, denouncing a "coup".

After months of political deadlock and in the midst of a serious socio-economic and health crisis, Kais Saied invoked on July 25 an "imminent danger" to dismiss the Prime Minister, suspend the activities of Parliament and take back the judiciary in hand .

"Kais' project is civil war", "The people want what you don't want ..." in reference to the president's slogan during his campaign, or even "No dignity without freedom", hammered the demonstrators.

Their placards also read "Kaies Saied's actions resulted in the bankruptcy" of Tunisia, "No to media intimidation" or "An independent judiciary is required".

In the front rows of the demonstration were several deputies from the dissolved Parliament, from the left or from the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party.

"No military judgment, Tunisia is a civil state"

“They closed all the roads, avenues, highways. After shutting down the state, Saied shut down the institutions, the Constitution. He closed the country. He closed the Republic, ”lambasted Jawhar Ben Mbarek, a specialist in constitutional law and a figure of the Tunisian left, to the media. Several Internet users shared images of vehicles blocked by the police on social networks to prevent them from reaching the suburb of Bardo near Tunis, while an impressive device blocked all access to Parliament.

With the Tunisian flag in hand, the protesters, gathered less than a kilometer from Parliament, also shouted their opposition to the prosecutions launched by military courts against civilians.

"No military judgment, Tunisia is a civil state", they chanted.

On Wednesday, the NGO Amnesty International denounced the "growing number of civilians who face prosecution in military courts", stressing that in just three months, "the military justice has launched investigations or tried at least 10 civilians" .

Kais Saied lost the support of the people

On September 22, President Saied promulgated a decree formalizing the suspension of several chapters of the Constitution and instituting "exceptional measures", supposed to be provisional, the time to carry out "political reforms", including amendments to the Constitution of 2014 Since then, he has legislated himself, has frozen the functioning of Parliament and the salaries of deputies, and presides over the Council of Ministers.

He then appointed scientist Najla Bouden as prime minister on September 29, who formed a government on October 11.

And if the president insisted on the temporary nature of the measures, assuring wanting to respect freedoms, the Tunisians, who supported him at the start, begin to get impatient in the face of the economic slump.

Inflation is indeed at 6% and the country has an unemployment rate of 18%.

"The trend is to move towards a more presidential regime, but we do not know whether it will be in a democratic framework or not," recently explained Youssef Chérif, of the Columbia Global Centers research institute for North Africa. , criticizing plans "not very structured".

"There are signals going in both directions: with authoritarian drifts but also with hesitation", he adds, citing the case of MP Yassine Ayari first prosecuted before a military court who then declared himself incompetent. .

World

Tunisia: New government announced by presidency after protests

World

Tunisia: President Kais Saied formalizes the strengthening of his powers

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