Tunisia’s Saied unpicks young ‘Arab spring’ democracy

By Angus McDowall

TUNIS (Reuters) – Most pictures of Tunisian President Kais Saied on his official social media feed present him behind his desk with mouth open, lecturing a procession of subdued, deferential subordinates.

That top-down method, through which Saied directs and all people else follows, is what his critics concern might be enshrined as Tunisia’s new political system by way of Monday’s referendum rather than a flawed, however comparatively open, democracy.

Voters are being requested to approve a brand new structure that formalises a lot of the sweeping powers Saied has seized since he moved towards the parliament a 12 months in the past, circling its constructing with tanks and giving himself the correct to rule by decree.

A former legislation lecturer with a stiff public method, Saied has depicted his actions as a corrective to political dysfunction and corruption attributable to the 2014 structure that shared powers between president and parliament.

However his critics say he’s a brand new dictator whose energy seize a 12 months in the past was tantamount to a coup and whose march to one-man rule has trashed the democratic good points of Tunisia’s 2011 revolution.

The structure he introduced final month creates a supreme position for the president, relegating each parliament and judiciary to features of the state he’ll lead, moderately than branches of energy in their very own proper.

Having framed his July 25, 2021, seizure of powers as the beginning of a brand new republic, he set Monday’s referendum on his new structure on the anniversary of that date.

Saied was a political novice when elected president in 2019. Lower than two years later, he outmanoeuvred his extra skilled political adversaries, together with the Islamist Ennahda celebration, along with his sudden strikes towards the parliament and former cupboard. These steps heralded the beginning of his bid to amass energy.

They gave the impression to be vastly well-liked amongst Tunisians who have been fed up with political bickering and financial malaise. 1000’s took to the streets to have fun and the president basked in a said conviction that he represented the need of the individuals.

ECONOMIC TROUBLE

His supporters have hailed him as an impartial man of integrity standing as much as elite forces whose bungling and corruption have condemned Tunisia to a decade of political paralysis and financial stagnation.

However critics are deeply sceptical of guarantees he’ll protect the rights and freedoms gained in 2011, which he has written into the draft structure, and say he’s throttling Tunisia’s nascent democracy. Saied has painted his opponents as enemies of the individuals and has urged arrests of those that defy him.

Whereas it’s unclear simply how a lot backing Saied continues to get pleasure from, help seems to have declined. The financial system is in serious trouble and Tunisians are rising poorer.

The highly effective labour union is already mounting public sector strikes over financial reforms required for an IMF bailout and has additionally indicated it disapproves of his referendum.

Although opposition to Saied is fragmented, with probably the most highly effective events refusing to place apart outdated variations to reject his plans, it has mobilised 1000’s of demonstrators in protests towards him.

Against this, after a pro-Saied rally final 12 months that Reuters journalists current stated had drawn just a few thousand, the president boasted that 1.8 million of his supporters had flocked to the streets.

Tunisian politics is carefully watched overseas due to the nation’s position in triggering the 2011 “Arab Spring” uprisings and its success as the only real democracy to emerge from them.

Saied, a solemn, 64-year-old who speaks an ultra-formal type of classical Arabic, desires to rewrite the historical past of that revolution, when he would stroll at evening by way of Tunis’s outdated metropolis speaking with protesters.

NEW REVOLUTION

He has modified the date when the state marks its anniversary to minimize the ousting of autocratic president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and has rejected the outcomes of arduous negotiations afterwards that led to a democratic structure.

That 2014 structure was the work of rival political events and civil society organisations who held a grand nationwide dialogue to work previous bitter disputes for a compromise that appeared to convey the nation collectively.

Upon his election in 2019 as an impartial candidate, defeating a media mogul accused of corruption in a landslide second-round victory, he declared a brand new revolution.

Moreover dismissing the unpopular however elected parliament, Saied has ousted the beforehand impartial judicial authorities and electoral fee, elevating fears over rule of legislation and the integrity of elections.

He has additionally purged state staff, together with some within the safety companies, to oust individuals linked to the principle political events.

He has since stated he desires to carry new parliamentary elections in December.

For a lot of Tunisians, Saied stays one thing of a caricature whose frequent on-line movies present him lecturing subordinates or guests from behind the presidential desk, usually evaluating himself to France’s twentieth century chief Charles de Gaulle.

These movies have given few insights into coverage plans to handle Tunisia’s principal financial issues, however they’ve usually included fiery rhetoric towards his detractors and opponents, including to fears the president seeks autocratic ends.

(Reporting by Angus McDowall; Modifying by William Maclean)