Messages to more than one party.. This is what the Tunisian opposition demonstrations agreed upon on the anniversary of the revolution

TUNIS -

Although they agree on diagnosing the political situation and linking the exit from the Tunisian crisis with the departure of President Kais Saied, the opposition parties that took to the streets to demonstrate in the capital, Tunis, on the 11th anniversary of the revolution, are still looking to unify their ranks.

Thousands of Tunisians belonging to the opposition Salvation Front - the Islamic Ennahda Movement, the former majority party and its ideological opponent, the Free Destourian Party - and centrist parties and organizations, went out in demonstrations in separate places, but the largest of them was the center of the capital.

While the police prevented the Free Destourian Party, a descendant of the former regime, from marching towards the presidential palace in Carthage, the Salvation Front and its largest component, the Ennahda Movement, managed to break the security barrier to reach Habib Bourguiba Street in the heart of the capital, Tunis.

Although these explosive protest movements amid a deep political, economic and social crisis, did not coalesce into a unified demonstration, their messages were agreed that the situation in the country had become more critical after a year and a half of Qais Saeed holding all power in his hands.

Issam Al-Shabi: The demonstrations sent a message to all political forces of unity against the course of the coup (Al-Jazeera)

Countdown

Issam Al-Shabi, Secretary-General of the Republican Party, one of the centrist parties opposing President Qais Saeed, told Al-Jazeera Net that all components of the political spectrum demonstrated in different places, but they are unified and adhere to the values ​​and principles of the revolution against what he considered a coup.

For him, the various parties sent a unified message during their demonstration today, which is "their agreement on the need to start the countdown to the course of the coup, which has been too long," stressing that the demonstration of the various forces in one day is a message to coordinate their efforts to put an end to the crisis.

"We send a message to all political forces with the aim of uniting against the course of the coup to restore democracy and save the country," he said, highlighting that uniting the opposition's efforts on one front does not mean establishing an electoral alliance, but rather moving away from previous differences and divisions.

He believes that the president has failed miserably in managing the country due to the deepening economic and social crisis and the deterioration of all indicators, considering that what the president is promoting for him in terms of creating private companies or recovering looted funds within the framework of penal reconciliation is just selling illusions.

Yamina Al Zoghlamy: It is time for the opposition to sit at a dialogue table to discuss an alternative to the president in a democratic framework (Al Jazeera)

Dialogue table

In turn, the former deputy and leader of the Ennahda Movement and a member of the Salvation Front, Yamina Zoghlamy, says that the protests of the opposition parties, even in different squares in the capital, on the anniversary of the revolution, reflects their agreement to diagnose the deteriorating situation as a result of what it considered the failure of the president.

And she assures Al-Jazeera Net that the time has come for the opposition to sit at the dialogue table to discuss the alternative to the president within the framework of democracy and not through chaos, considering that the prominent message during today's demonstrations is the need for the opposition to unite to stop this absurdity.

The Ennahda movement is considered the most affected by the exceptional measures taken by President Qais Saeed on July 25, 2021, as it was a major party in governance after the revolution on January 14, 2011, and held most of the seats in the dissolved parliament.

Qais Saeed holds the Ennahda movement, its partners in government, and the parties allied with it responsible for the deterioration of the situation over the past decade, and sometimes accuses it of treason and other times of corruption, while leaders of the Ennahda movement are now subject to prosecution on several charges.

Al-Zoglamy says that the president has not achieved anything except selling illusions to the people who suffer from the prohibitive price, the scarcity of basic materials, and the suppression of freedoms, stressing that the peaceful protest movements will continue in various forms in the coming periods without respite.

The protests took place amid tight security measures (Al-Jazeera)

Next moves

For his part, Ramadan Ben Omar, spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, says that the unstable political situation has created a state of anxiety among all political and social groups, which will continue their protest movements until their rights are restored.

And he adds to Al-Jazeera Net that despite the lack of geographical expansion of the protests or their weak mobilization capacity, it gives an indication that the path that the country took after July 25, 2021 is the same as the previous path, contrary to what the president promoted as a break with the past.

And he confirms that Qais Saeed maintained the same previously failed economic and social policies and preserved the interests of the economic lobbies that control the national economy by strengthening its influence and gains within the provisions of the Finance Law 2023.

He believes that the president is making false promises to people through marketing to create private companies that will exploit the state's lands, criticizing the criminal reconciliation path that he seeks to implement to recover the looted money from those involved in corruption because it jumps on the path of transitional justice.

He says, "The penal reconciliation offered by the president jumped on transitional justice and on the path of accountability and opens the door to deals with the corrupt," considering that the country will slip into chaos in the absence of any vision to reform the crisis economic and social conditions.

He added, "Today we are in the most dangerous phase of Tunisia's modern history due to the unprecedented political and economic crisis. It is clear that economic indicators are heading towards collapse, and it is not excluded that Tunisia will experience violent social shocks and fall into chaos."

Ramadan bin Omar: Tunisia is going through the most dangerous stage in its history due to the political and economic crisis (Al-Jazeera)

course correction

On the other hand, the political parties supporting the exceptional measures announced by the president on July 25, 2021 during the anniversary of the commemoration of the revolution, did not come out, declaring their rejection of the assessments presented by the opposition parties regarding the general political situation in the country.

Zuhair Hamdi, Secretary-General of the Popular Current Party, says that he does not agree with the parties that believe that what happened in Tunisia is a coup, considering that the measures taken by President Said a year and a half ago are part of correcting the course of the revolution "after 10 years of ruin."

Hamdi acknowledges the existence of deficiencies in the path of July 25, but confirms that there is no other option outside this path to correct the compass of the revolution, stressing that the country will witness a number of reforms after focusing (starting work) the next parliament, on top of which is the economic and social file.