Tunisian President Kais Saied announced on Sunday the establishment of a “national dialogue”, expected for months, from which the political forces he considers responsible for the political and economic crisis in the country will be excluded.
Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed has announced the holding of a “national dialogue” from which several political parties will be excluded, including the Islamist-inspired party Ennahda.
In a speech delivered on Sunday evening, May 2, for the Muslim feast of Eid marking the end of Ramadan, Kaïs Saïed indicated that a commission would “manage the national dialogue”, a measure demanded many times by the countries of the G7 and the European Union since assuming full powers on July 25, 2021.
Four organizations will take part: the trade union center UGTT, the employers’ organization UTICA, the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH), and the National Bar Association.
This is the Quartet that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015 for its contribution to the democratic transition in Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring and considered at the time as the only democracy in the Arab world.
Since the summer of 2021, President Saïed, democratically elected at the end of 2019, has monopolized all powers and has ruled the country by decree. He dissolved, at the end of March, the Parliament dominated for 10 years by coalitions led by Ennahda, his pet peeve.
Preparing a Constitution for “a new Republic”
In recent weeks, he has also changed the composition of the Superior Council of the Judiciary which governs the judicial system, and that of the high electoral authority Isie.
On Sunday, the leader of the powerful UGTT, Noureddine Taboubi, made an insistent appeal to Kaïs Saïed to launch the national dialogue. It is “probably the last chance to bring together national forces” and avoid “a dismantling of the state and a financial and economic collapse” of the country, argued Noureddine Taboubi.
In his speech, the president excluded any participation in this dialogue of “those who sabotaged, starved and mistreated the people”, implying the parties which, like Ennahda, denounced “a coup d’etat” by Kaïs Saïed.
In a roadmap supposed to get the country out of the political crisis, Kaïs Saïed has planned a referendum on constitutional amendments on July 25, before legislative elections on December 17. According to Kaïs Saïed, the committee of experts in charge of preparing a Constitution for “a new Republic” will soon complete its work.
In addition to the political stalemate, Tunisia is experiencing a serious socio-economic crisis and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the hope of obtaining a new loan.
