Supporters of Tunisia's President Kais Saied gather on the streets as they celebrate after he dismissed the government and froze parliament, in Tunis, Tunisia July 25, TUNIS, July 25 Reuters - Tunisia's president dismissed the government and froze parliament on Sunday in a dramatic escalation of a political crisis that his opponents labelled a coup, calling their own supporters to come onto the streets in protest.
President Kais Saied said he would assume executive authority with the assistance of a new prime minister, in the biggest challenge yet to the democratic system Tunisia introduced in a revolution. Crowds of people quickly flooded the capital and other cities to support Saied, cheering and honking car horns in scenes that recalled the revolution , which triggered the Arab Spring protests that convulsed the Middle East.
As his supporters filled the central Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the epicentre of the revolution, Saied joined them in the street, state television pictures showed. However, the extent of backing for Saied's moves against a fragile government and divided parliament was not clear, as Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi called on Tunisians to come into the streets to stop what he called a coup.
Saied, in his televised statement announcing his move, had warned against any violent response. Hours after the statement, military vehicles surrounded the parliament building as people nearby cheered and sang the national anthem, two witnesses said.
Local media reported that the army had also surrounded the state television building. Years of paralysis, corruption, declining state services and growing unemployment had already soured many Tunisians on their political system before the COVID pandemic hammered the economy last year and coronavirus infection rates shot up this summer.
Protests, called by social media activists but not backed by any of the big political parties, took place on Sunday with much of the anger focused on the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, the biggest in parliament. The economy shrank 8. Both the powerful labour union and foreign lenders see little choice but to resume the IMF process.
Such reforms - including redirecting subsidies and shrinking one of the world's heaviest public sector wage burdens - are unpopular and would come at a moment when the public mood is highly volatile. Anger at economic stagnation, aggravated by the pandemic, helped drive apparently widespread popular support for Saied's sudden intervention on July Successive governments have failed to resolve the problems, often pulled between the demands of foreign lenders and the UGTT.
As president, Saied has been formally responsible only for foreign affairs and defence. Before his election he gave few clues as to his economic views though some of his main supporters came from the political left.
One option may be help from Gulf states that saw his intervention as undermining the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which they regard as a main regional foe, and which is close to the biggest party in the now frozen parliament. Saied has boasted of contacts with "friendly countries" for help and has received envoys from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
But Saied has yet to replace the government he ousted in late July or offer a comprehensive plan for emerging from the political and economic turmoil gripping the North African country. But instead of making a keynote speech, he visited female artisans.
As many Tunisians and some hardline Arab governments root him on, rivals decry a coup. Rights groups and pundits worry about shrinking freedoms and a restrained response thus far from Western governments — although a U. Or will he keep them long term? Seemingly stiff and austere, he earned nicknames like RoboCop and Robespierre, after the French revolutionary, yet rocketed to victory, capturing nearly three-quarters of the runoff vote.
For now, many ordinary Tunisians see Saied as a savior, not a spoiler. Instead of getting better, life has gotten harder since the euphoric revolutionary days a decade ago, which touched off the wider Arab Spring revolt. Many blamed the government's shambolic pandemic response on bickering parties, starting with Ennahdha.
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