Hundreds of Tunisians demonstrated on Sunday in the city of Gabès (south-east) against what they called “the coup d’etat”, calling for the departure of President Kaïs Saïed.
The demonstrators who gathered in front of the court of the first instance in Gabes, on the initiative of the regional committee of the movement “Citizens against the coup”, chanted slogans such as “Down with the coup”, “Constitution, freedom, national dignity” or “Liberties freedoms, the police state, it’s over”.
“Citizens Against the Coup d’Etat” spokesperson, Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, told the demonstrators: “We will return to Gabes to celebrate the end of the coup and the return of freedom”.
And to add: “The people who have tasted freedom will never tolerate dictatorship”, considering that “the coup ended after it turned into a danger for this land and for its people”.
For his part, the professor of philosophy, Abou Yaareb Marzouki, addressed the demonstrators, declaring: “Kaïs Saïed, it is the unfortunate past of Tunisia, and you are its future”.
And to affirm: “It is republican security that will rid national institutions of germs and the coronavirus”, noting: “Our next battle is to build democracy and free Tunisia’s resources from the hands of French occupation”.
For his part, the former president of the Bar Association and member of the leadership of “Citizens Against the Coup”, Abderrazak Kilani, noted that “touching the constitution is a red line because this constitution was made with the blood of the martyrs”.
He added: “The president of the coup (Saïed) got his hands on the executive power and the legal power and today he wants to get his hands on justice”.
President Kaïs Saïed claims to act “in accordance with the law, the provisions of the constitution and on the basis of legal texts drawn up throughout this (exceptional) period in the form of decrees and decree-laws”.
Tunisia has been in the throes of an acute political crisis since July 25. On that date, Saïed had taken a series of exceptional measures, relating in particular to the suspension of the work of Parliament and the lifting of the immunity enjoyed by deputies.
He had also suspended the Authority for the control of the constitutionality of laws and decided to legislate by means of decrees, just as he dismissed from his post the head of government, Hichem Méchichi, thus taking the head of the Executive, assisted by a government whose head he appointed in the person of the academic Najla Bouden Romdhane.
