After the president dismissed dozens of judges, the Tunisian opposition forces warn of an exacerbation of the crisis and call for the referendum to be overturned

Tunisian opposition forces warned of the deepening crisis in the country after President Kais Saied's decision yesterday to dismiss 75 judges, and called for a united stand against what they described as a coup, amid mounting calls to drop the referendum scheduled for next month to amend the constitution.

The opposition National Salvation Front said that the dismissal decision was based on suspicions that have not been resolved by the disciplinary bodies.

The Front stressed in a statement that the president's dismissal of the judges authorized the country's push for confrontation between the state and political parties and unions, and would only exacerbate the political crisis.

The statement added that "the president's harsh interference in the functioning of the judicial facility turns it into a tool of persecution," stressing that Saeed's decision to dismiss the judges was based on a decree that violates the principle of separation of powers.

Corruption and collusion

The Tunisian president had issued a presidential decree, published in the Official Gazette, to relieve 57 judges of their duties on charges of corruption, collusion, and covering up suspects in terrorism cases.

The list includes Youssef Bouzacher, the former head of the Supreme Judicial Council, which was dissolved by Qais Saeed, in addition to Tayeb Rashid, the former head of the Court of Cassation, and Bashir Al-Akrimi, the former undersecretary of the republic.

At the opening of the cabinet meeting, Saeed launched an attack on what he called dishonest judges, and added that several reasons, including their relationship with political parties and their concealment of terrorist suspects, especially in the file of what he described as the secret apparatus of the Ennahda movement, prompted the decision to change the Supreme Judicial Council. Who did not cleanse the judiciary, he said.

In response to this decision, the Union of Administrative Judges in Tunisia said, "We categorically reject the president's decree dismissing 57 judges," stressing that the decree of President Kais Saied "terminated the independence of the judiciary."

In turn, the Tunisian Judges Association condemned "President Kais Saied's massacre of judges and the liquidation of those who did not submit to his instructions and pressures."

Opposition position

Commenting on this measure, the "Citizens Against the Coup" initiative in Tunisia called on the political and civil forces and the entire democratic street to stand united against what it described as the coup in the country.

According to what the initiative published on its Facebook page, the decision to dismiss the judges was based on suspicions that have not been resolved by the disciplinary and judicial bodies.

The "Citizens Against the Coup" initiative considered the decision as "another exercise in which the coup authority is reversing its authoritarian path."

The initiative added that the decision to dismiss the judges "authorizes a dangerous phase of using state agencies and the judicial facility to shut down political life and target the opposition."

The initiative confirmed that what it described as an authoritarian measure comes in the context of "internal and external isolation of the coup authority and an attempt to export its political crisis."

drop the poll

In a related context, the national campaign to drop the referendum in Tunisia called for a boycott of the upcoming July 25 referendum, and not to participate in it.

The campaign said that what Saeed had done was a "coup against the gains of democracy aimed at establishing a rule hostile to freedom."

The national campaign to drop the referendum in Tunisia added that "Saeed's referendum is against the constitution, international standards and the will of the people."

The campaign continued, "The judiciary is now living in a state of terror because of Saeed's decrees," and stressed that it "does not accept that the judiciary's purification passes through settling accounts with opponents of Said's policy."

The campaign stated that the President of the Republic "wants to put his hand on the judiciary to implement his gelatinous project."

A 'fuzzy' poll

For his part, the Secretary-General of the Republican Party in Tunisia, Issam Chebbi, described the referendum on a new constitution for the country as absurd, adding that "it is intended to adapt it to the benefit of the ruler."

And he renewed his refusal to return to what he described as the square of tyranny and exclusivity of government.

In turn, the Secretary-General of the Workers' Party in Tunisia, Hamma Hammami, said that the parties that signed the statement boycotting the referendum on the constitution refuse to follow what he described as the populist option that the president is pushing towards.

Hammami considered that the danger of the referendum project lies in giving false legitimacy to options prepared by President Saeed.

For his part, the Secretary-General of the Democratic Current in Tunisia, Ghazi Chaouachi, considered that President Kais Saied's decision to dismiss a number of judges is a unilateral decision and aims to put a hand on the judiciary in order to settle his accounts with his opponents and opponents.

Al-Shawashi said, during a press conference of five parties opposing the referendum, that the impeachment decision is a message of intimidation and intimidation for the judges until they submit to instructions.

The labor union denounces

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of the Tunisian Labor Union, Noureddine Taboubi, said, "Those who managed public affairs did not use their capabilities for the benefit of the state."

Taboubi added - in front of a union meeting regarding the call for a general strike in the city of Sfax - that the union "considers itself the real locomotive in civil society", indicating its readiness for any dialogue that leads to feasible results.

Taboubi denied employing the struggles of the Tunisian working class for political reasons, stressing that the country is in a state of economic collapse.

Regarding the general strike in the public sector that will be implemented on the 16th of this month, Al-Taboubi said that it is "thoughtful, and its title is the dignity of female workers and workers with thought and forearm."