The day before, I had met, about twenty minutes away, another of the country’s most famous journalists. His observation was essentially the same.
Elyes Gharbi, in his early fifties, hosts Tunisia’s most popular public affairs radio show: the Midi Show, on Mosaïque FM.
We are talking about around 800,000 listeners per day, in this country of 12 million inhabitants stuck between Algeria and Libya. That’s a lot of people.
Tunisian journalist Elyes Gharbi hosts Tunisia’s most popular public affairs radio show: the Midi Show , on Mosaïque FM.
Over a beer, on the terrace of a hotel built by a French architect – we sometimes feel like we are in Paris in the heart of Tunis – the journalist explains to me that things have changed a lot since “July 25”.
I quickly noticed here that we talk about what happened on July 25, 2021, a bit like we talk about September 11, 2001, in the United States. We don’t bother to mention the year. The event caused such a shock that everyone knew what we were talking about.
What happened in July 2021 was lawyer Dalila Ben Mbarek Msaddek who explained it to me best. I quote her here on this subject, but I will tell you later, in detail, of the misfortunes which now overwhelm her family.
You should know that at the time, the State was experiencing a crisis, and the political system was blocked. To get out of this, President Kaïs Saïed, democratically elected two years earlier, decided to use the Tunisian political equivalent of a nuclear weapon: article 80 of the 2014 Constitution.
Tunisian President, Kaïs Saïed, in November 2020
According to this article, “in the event of imminent danger, the President of the Republic can take all powers. But he does not have the right to fire the government or close Parliament,” explains the lawyer.
But, she said, he did both.
“Two months later, he assumed all the powers. With a presidential decree, he assumed executive, judicial, and legislative powers.”
This is what happened two years ago in Tunisia.
And the State has since continued to tighten the screw. Which doesn’t displease everyone, that said. President Kaïs Saïed is still very popular. The way he manages the country seems to suit a significant part of the population.
I will come back to that too.
But for now, I’m sitting on a terrace with Elyes Gharbi. And I quickly discovered that this journalist can make complex things simple. To understand what is happening today, you have to go back to the revolution and the fall of former dictator Ben Ali, he said.
For Tunisia, 2011 was May 68 times 100! And at the level of an Arab country, too, which is very particular. We experienced 2011, we journalists in any case, as an incredible fireworks display of freedoms. And we imagined that it was unassailable and there would be no going back.
- Elyes Gharbi, journalist and host
However, today, those in power are “whistling the end of recess”.
The radio where Elyes Gharbi works also tastes it.
Last February, the general director of Mosaïque FM, Noureddine Boutar, was arrested. He was accused of money laundering, but also of having participated in a plot against state security, like several other high-profile Tunisians.
He was put behind bars for three months.
In the end, “he was released and there was no trial”, specifies the journalist.
Then, in May, Elyes Gharbi and one of his columnists were questioned by the police.
What were they accused of? In the wake of an attack committed by a Tunisian police officer near a synagogue, columnist Haythem El Mekki declared that there were “certainly thugs” among the police recruits.
“We were calm and we are no longer. This is what we have to remember in all of this. You come to your newsroom certain of being able to accomplish your work, serene about your physical and moral integrity. Today, you ask yourself questions,” summarizes Elyes Gharbi.
And added: “Today, everyone is asking questions: unions, politicians, citizens.”
He is indeed not the only one to find himself in this uncomfortable situation. And for others, it’s even worse.
