The uprise of the Arab spring begun in 2011, in Tunisia, after months of demonstrations, that demanded the then President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, to step down from power. He had ruled the country as a one-party state for 23 years.
The country decided to pursue democracy, and new political parties begun to spring up, supervised by the “Transitional Government”.
Several elections were held, where the moderate Islamist party Ennahda (Rennaisance) gained the most parliamentary seats, but never won a majority. It had to share power with secular parties.
“After the revolution a new consensus emerged, in which the Islamist party and the secular ones agreed to work together to create new democratic institutions,” says Riccardo Fabiani of the think tank, the International Crisis Group.
A new constitution was written by the parties, which gave new powers to Tunisia’s parliament, the National Assembly, and gave democratic rights to citizens. Politicians have failed to set up a constitutional court, said Malik Saral of SOAS, University of London.
“The court was needed to provide checks and balances on the government, and to guarantee human rights,” she said. “Not getting an agreement on the constitutional court was one of the main failures when setting up the democratic system,” Saral explained. The politicians who ruled after 2011 also failed to improve economic conditions and to create jobs, eroding people’s faith in their new form of government.
A research poll suggested that, while 70% of Tunisians supported democracy in 2012, the percentage declined to 48% in 2014, after another poll was taken. “People expected democracy automatically to bring economic growth,” Intissar Fakir of Middle East Institute said. “When it didn’t, they thought that democracy hadn’t paid.”
The Reign Of President Kais Saied
Kais Saied was a constitutional lawyer, who won presidency by a landslide in 2019. During his campaign, he said that, the democratic system was not working because the political parties in parliament had too much power.
“He pointed to himself as the man who could take the reins when everyone else was incompetent and corrupt,” Dr Yerkes of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said. The 2020 covid pandemic damaged the Tunisian economy, as health services couldn’t provide services to meet the intensity the pandemic came with.
Mr Saied exercised emergency power to sack the Prime Minister, closed the National Assembly and suspended the constitution. He said he was acting to “save the state,” a message which resonated with many Tunisians.
After laws were passed by decree, several opposition politicians and journalists who criticised him were detained or jailed. In July 2022, he won a referendum which allowed him to introduce a new constitution.
The President gained enormous powers and lessened the powers of the parliament and judiciary.
“President Saied has the idea that the president has a direct link with the grassroots, and rules in their name,” Mr Fabiani averred. “He thinks that parliament’s role is to help him to do that.”
“The National Assembly is now simply an advisory body for the president,” Ms Fakir disclosed. “They put forward ideas for laws which they think he might want to pass.”
In March this year, President Saied reorganized the National Assembly. Less than 9% of voters turned out for the elections, and many members refused to attend.
The leader of the opposition Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi, was arrested on April 17, 2023, charged with plotting against state security and making “inciting statements,” while the party said its headquarters had been raided by police. A judge has now ordered Mr Ghannouchi to be imprisoned, a move the US has condemned as “troubling”.
Mr Saied has recently attracted criticisms from International organizations, for demanding “urgent measures” to remove migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. He claimed, they are part of a “conspiracy” to change the demographic composition of Tunisia, which is mostly Arabic and Muslim.
“He thinks his base will like him making black Africans a scapegoat,” Ms Fakir lamented. “He blames them for the troubles the country is going through.”
10 years of building a progressive democratic Tunisia, has been shattered in year by President Kais Saied. “This is not the end of Tunisia’s democratic story,” Ms Fakir said.
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