The French newspaper "Le Monde" said that Tunisian President Kais Saied's insistence on imposing a change in institutions through a referendum on July 25th plunges the country into a state of anticipation, and means the start of the countdown to a stage of high risks in the country.
Professor of political science, expert in Middle East affairs, Jean-Pierre Filiu - says - in his column in the newspaper - that Qais Saeed, a novice in politics and anti-party and surrounded by a narrow circle of loyal supporters, claimed when he was elected President of the Republic on October 13, 2019 with 73% of the vote It embodies "what the people want".
He pointed out that Kais Saied does not pay attention to what was approved by the democratic transition after the overthrow of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from adopting a constitution dividing executive powers between the head of state and the prime minister.
Said's populist tendency prompted - as Filio says - to declare a "state of exception" and freeze the activities of Parliament, then assume its full powers. This coup received undeniable popular support at first, as political differences paralyzed the country's administration.
Alone in Carthage
Qais Saeed - as the writer sees - is trying to repeat in Tunisia the successful adventure of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Egypt, where he overthrew the democratically elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, before he became head of state the following year by officially obtaining 97% of the votes, in a non-Muslim vote. with its results.
The writer adds: Like his Egyptian counterpart, the resident of the presidential palace in Carthage accuses the Tunisian Islamists in the Ennahda movement of all evil, after they lost their credibility due to their poor government performance, emphasizing that partisan nepotism has more than their societal choices, which he also denounces.
However, the main difference between the Egyptian and Tunisian "coups" is that the states, which encouraged the dynamics of the counter-revolution in both cases, were careful not to finance Said's seizure of power.
Now Saeed finds himself the undisputed master of a country where the economic crisis is deepening, knowing that social discontent contributed greatly to supporting his coup on July 25, 2021, but the president who specializes in constitutional law rushed recklessly towards institutional reforms, as if this legal framework alone It can solve the economic crisis that the country is experiencing, says the writer.
serious breakup
In his approach to the re-establishment, Kais Saied was not satisfied with returning to the founding president, Habib Bourguiba, but also changed the date of the celebration of the fall of Ben Ali to a privilege to replace it with the date of the outbreak of the uprising on December 17, 2010, stressing that the "revolution" was betrayed during the democratic transition, which he accuses of. As he burdened the country with all the current problems, Qais Saeed calls for a form of "direct democracy" that resembles the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's obsession with annihilating intermediary bodies.
It seems that the electronic consultation that Saeed organized between last January and March, with an opaque methodology, attracted only a few hundred thousand in a country with a population of 12 million people. Adopting a constitution by referendum on July 25 next according to his wishes, as the writer believes, but the Tunisian General Labor Union - which includes more than 800,000 members - refused to adopt such an approach and threatened a general strike.
The writer concluded that the exacerbation of the political impasse began to raise the concerns of the army and the Ministry of Interior, which were supporting President Saeed, especially since he now denies any virtue of the national dialogue that spared the country a confrontation between modernists and Islamists in 2013, and therefore the Tunisian president’s refusal to any settlement raises fears of a confrontation There will inevitably be a winner and a loser this time, and the countdown has begun.