Seventy-two hours after the seizure of all powers by the President of the Republic, public opinion is waiting and hoping for a hunt for corruption.

He is the only one who knows the timetable. The only one who knows in which direction his country will go. The sole master of the political hours to come in a country devoid of this vital safeguard called the Constitutional Court. Him and a few generals. From the palace of Carthage, Kaïs Saïed, 63, “froze” the Assembly of the Representatives of the People for “thirty days”, preventing the 217 deputies from going to the Bardo Palace, dismissed from their functions the president of the government, the Ministers of Defense, Justice, and the Interior (which the head of government had occupied for seven months “ad interim”). The official journal published a list of personalities whose functions ended on July 25, the day Kaïs Saïed took power. There are most of the advisers of Hichem Mechichi, his chief of staff,

Two days before the activation of article 80, he put an end to the functions of Colonel-Major Taoufik Ayouni, public prosecutor, director of military justice. He is now “the first prosecutor”. Whatever the circles of power, economic, political and / or family, it buzzes with rumors of a fierce anti-corruption fight. We are talking about arrests, some can no longer sleep. Customs have received instructions so that certain politicians and businessmen cannot leave the territory. A scenario reminiscent of that of May 2017: the then president of the government, Youssef Chahed, had Chafik Jarraya, a licensed businessman, nicknamed “Mister Banana”, arrested for his smuggling of the said fruit under Ben Ali. The man boasted on some TV shows of having bought part of the deputies and a good number of journalists. Occult banker of certain policies, acoquiné with son of Béji Caïd Essebsi, Hafedh, his arrest aroused great hope among the population, the popularity of Youssef Chahed had then touched the zeniths. Alas, the planned “purge” came to an end with this single arrest. The “purge” turned out to be a simple settling of scores within the same political party. And Youssef Chahed only obtained 6% in the presidential election.

A wall pass with all the powers

Kaïs Saïed campaigned in 2019 on the theme of integrity. A little music without a symphony orchestra. He displays a profile through the wall, takes the bus, sips a Capuchin at the counter of popular cafes (800 millimes, 20 euro cents), holds the same speech since his first media appearances, remarks hostile to the parliamentary regime and to the parties. The polls show him the winner. In the second round, 72.7% of the vote, three million on an electoral body which has eight.

Selim Kharrat, member of the NGO Al Bawsala, a real watchman for parliamentary activity, sums up the presidential DNA: “For him, everything must start from the local, we must elect local councils which will elect regional councils which will elect the national elected representatives, the deputies, these being revocable at any moment.”

A clash of systems

Source of obvious confrontations: Saïed was elected in an institutional environment drastically different from the one he wants to install. The Parliament is its nuclear heart, the deputies decide on the government (president and ministers) when the presidency of the Republic has for prerogatives “only” Defense and Foreign Affairs. Article 80 of the Constitution, its interpretation, broke the institutional data.

The scenes of jubilation observed on Sunday evening reflect above all the disgust of Tunisians towards a political class which has failed to improve its daily life. While political institutions have become democratic, the oligarchic structure of the economy has hardly wavered. Many Tunisians are hoping for a “clean hands” operation like what happened in Italy in the early 1990s under the leadership of Judge Di Pietro. The two countries are very close culturally speaking, the RAI rocked the young generation, Ben Ali having banned France 2 because of a report from  8 p.m. highlighting the dictatorial nature of his regime. Ten years after the revolution, the social and economic situation, worsened by the pandemic and its management, is at its lowest when the pandemic situation is at its highest.

Politics seen as an investment

Since the eruption of democracy, Tunisian political life has been invaded by money. Many businessmen have invested in parties, becoming deputies, ministers, presidential candidates. “Campaign reimbursement”, meant a leader of Nidaa Tounes, the party of former President of the Republic Béji Caïd Essebsi. Two parties mainly welcomed these newcomers to politics: Ennahdha, the Islamist party and the Nidaa Tounes, founded around the BCE candidacy. The latter presented himself as a bulwark of the Islamist party when he had negotiated a government agreement with them before the election.

Suspicion of foreign funding

A report from the Court of Auditors dissected the accounts of the 2019 electoral campaigns, explaining that half of the parties had not provided the documents justifying their funding. Report submitted at the end of 2020. By a capricious coincidence of fate, proceedings were announced on July 28 against Ennahdha, Qalb Tounes (“In the heart of Tunisia”, party founded for Nabil Karoui who has just come out of six months of preventive detention), the first two parties in Parliament in terms of number of deputies. The prosecution suspects foreign funding. Files dating from before July 25 are picking up momentum.

Tunisians are waiting for a roadmap

72 hours after the coup, the constitutional coup d’etat of Kaïs Saïed, Tunisians are waiting for a roadmap. “It’s a 1000% Tunisian situation,” explains Selim Kharrat. “No analogy is conceivable with Egypt, Kaïs Saïed was democratically elected, not Sisi, the Tunisian army is legitimist, our civil society has a maturity”, he continues. He points to “a man who concentrates all the powers without any counter-power”, but gives himself a little time to see if “a war against the corrupt elected officials is being waged”. He specifies, a notable fact, that “Kaïs Saïed was accused of observing corruption for two years, denouncing it without acting, now he has taken action”.

Several interlocutors of the new strongman of the country noted Wednesday “his absence of doubts. He is convinced that he is right”, interlocutors usually favorable to this one. Kharrat ends: “Saïed has the benefit of the doubt for a few days, people are waiting for details, but if he does not clarify.”