Escalating internal condemnation of the decision.. the Tunisian president dissolves parliament after a hypothetical session that approved the abolition of "exceptional measures"

Yesterday, Wednesday, Tunisian President Kais Saied announced the dissolution of Parliament, which had been suspended, calling for an investigation to be opened against those he called "conspirators against the state."

The move provoked mixed reactions, most of them condemning.

This decision came after a remote meeting held by members of the suspended parliament, and observers described it as a clear challenge to the president, during which they voted in favor of canceling the exceptional presidential decrees that grant him almost absolute powers.

And the Official Gazette reported that the President issued a decree to dissolve Parliament late yesterday evening, Wednesday, 8 months after suspending the parliament’s work and assuming full executive authority.

Supervising an emergency meeting of the National Security Council earlier on Wednesday, Saeed said that the decision to dissolve was in order to preserve the state and its institutions, based on Chapter 72 of the Constitution.

He added that Tunisia is experiencing an exceptional situation and a "coup attempt," and added that the deputies who held a remote session "know that they have no legitimacy, and what they are doing now and what they will do later, has no legal value."

The Tunisian president warned that "any resort to violence will be confronted with the law and the armed forces," and said that "the state is not a game for those trying to overthrow it."

without legitimacy

And when he met with Prime Minister Najla Boden earlier, Saeed attacked parliamentarians holding a virtual session and said that they are "without legitimacy," and asked, "Why don't they wait for the people to say their word?"

He added that he asked the Minister of Justice to assign the Public Prosecution Office to play its role in the face of what he described as the blatant conspiracy against state security.

And Reuters news agency quoted Tunisian media as saying that the Minister of Justice had already ordered the opening of an investigation against deputies in Parliament on charges of conspiring against state security.

And 116 deputies in the suspended Tunisian parliament (out of 217) had approved a bill canceling the exceptional presidential measures taken by the president on the 25th of last July.

Representatives who participated in the session considered that the country has witnessed since that date a complex crisis that threatens the state and the citizen in his strength and livelihood.

A number of them called for early elections after the exceptional procedures were terminated.

reactions

In the first reactions to this remarkable development in the political crisis in Tunisia, a member of the Executive Office of the Ennahda Movement, Ahmed Qaaloul, told Al Jazeera that the movement "will continue the peaceful and civil opposition and the call for dialogue."

In turn, Ennahda MP Yamina Zoghlami said, "We are not afraid to defend a legitimate institution."

"People did not take away their confidence in us, the president closed parliament with a tank," she added.

Tariq Fteiti, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, whose work has been suspended, said that the result of the vote in the virtual session entitles the parliament to be in a permanent session.

On the other hand, political analyst Mahmoud Al-Baroudi said in a previous interview with Al-Jazeera that President Qais Saeed should continue his procedures and that parliamentary elections should be held within 3 months from now.

Labor position

In the same context, the Labor Party considered that the dissolution of the House of Representatives is a step that will plunge the country into a new phase of the power struggle.

A party statement said that the president "plunging the country into the unknown, deepening its dependence and pushing it at a faster pace towards bankruptcy, as well as pushing the people towards more misery since he announced the exceptional measures."

In its statement, the party also criticized the holding of the virtual session of the frozen parliament, considering that this amounted to entering a new phase of the conflict with Qais Saeed.

The left-wing party stressed, "This conflict has no interest in the people, because it is a struggle at the expense of its basic interests, and firewood will be used in it and in the end it will pay a heavy price."

It is noteworthy that Parliament Speaker Rashid Ghannouchi had called for two plenary sessions of Parliament, one of which was devoted to voting to cancel the exceptional measures announced by President Said, which included the dissolution of the government and the suspension of Parliament.

Saeed warned against attempts to hold parliament sessions, and said that state forces and institutions "will confront those who want to tamper with the state and push Tunisians to fight."