For Kaïs Saïed, the first three years of his mandate, during which he accumulated failures, went through profit and loss. It is from now when he has imposed his total control over the country, that he promises imminent takeoff, while his opponents hold their breath waiting for the inevitable crash…
In his televised speech on Saturday, December 31, 2022, Kaïs Saïed, once not custom, made a great effort on himself not to yell at Tunisians and accuse them of being the cause of their own misfortunes.
Addressing a message of greetings to Tunisians, inside and outside the country, on the occasion of the new year, the President of the Republic wished them a happy new year, marked by prosperity, the consecration of justice, and the preservation of human rights… knowing that, on the socio-economic level, 2023 will be, in the opinion of all analysts, one of the most difficult that the country has known for ten years.
Roll up your sleeves
“On this occasion, rather than evoking past events, despite the fact that their repercussions are still present, we must roll up our sleeves to overcome all the difficulties caused by the pandemic, the major international changes, and the new global context, including Tunisia. refuses to be one of the victims”, declared President Saïed who, for the first time since the beginning of his mandate three years ago, speaks of work and calls on citizens to “roll up their sleeves”.
Speaking of inner difficulties, Saïed did not resist the temptation to affirm, once again, that they are “mostly provoked”, thus invoking the famous secret hand of manipulators, plotters, speculators, and traitors. to the nation, illustrious strangers never named… whom he couldn’t miss.
While emphasizing the commitment of all to face all these changes and to work to improve the situation, particularly of those who have been marginalized for decades, who suffer from precariousness, and who seek to have a dignified life, the president of the republic insisted on the imperative to pass from weariness to action and from despair to hope, which requires, according to him, the shared conviction that Tunisia is open to all and that work and effort is the path to success and victory.
Saïed, in this sense, called for the creation of wealth, stressing that among these riches are human resources “inexhaustible and of inestimable value”, he said, also highlighting the importance of counting on oneself and on one’s own capacities to realize the legitimate demands of Tunisians for employment, freedom, and sovereignty.
Has Saied changed?
“Common conviction”, “Tunisia open to all”, “work”, “effort”, “wealth creation”, “rely on yourself” and what else? Values, expressions, and words were thought to be banished forever from the presidential lexicon. Which made the Tunisians lose three years, dividing them, pitting them against each other, and giving them the illusion of rapid and effortless enrichment, thanks to a hypothetical recovery of “property looted from the people”.
Has Saïed changed, knowing that, a few days earlier, he had been fuming, storming, and threatening his opponents, hurling accusations pointless against supposed traitors, politicians, journalists, and others, “who will recognize themselves” ( yes!)?
Hard to believe in such a rapid metamorphosis of the head of state. No doubt, the nature of the exercise of the end-of-year greetings inspired him with an unusual and very provisional posture of “father of the nation”, because Saïed recognizes only one paternity, that of the poor. , marginalized and left behind to meet whom he had gone last night, to the city of Al-Intilaka, on the outskirts of Tunis.
Tighten your seat belts?
President Saïed, as we know, likes symbols and sometimes confuses the words and the things they designate. By going to Al-Intilaka city, which in Arabic means take-off, moreover, at the dawn of a new year, he wanted to imply that everything would start now, when he has just imposed the system hyper-presidential, not to say autocratic, policy that he wanted, outside of any national debate and despite the opposition of whole sections of the political and social scene: a new constitution, a new electoral law, a new assembly, the everything to his measure and according to his wishes, and it will be, he promises, the take-off.
As for the first three years of his mandate, during which Tunisia hit rock bottom and Tunisians lost more than 30% of their purchasing power, Kaïs Saïed washes his hands off them: they went through profit and loss. And according to the symbolism of his trip last night, the countdown can begin now. It remains to know what: achievements and accomplishments, which we have good reason to doubt, or deficits, failures, and disillusions.
