In a twist, the head of government Hichem Mechichi decided to sack his interior minister, Taoufik Charfeddine, on the afternoon of Tuesday, January 5. If the brief press release from the government presidency does not specify the reasons for this brutal ousting, there are obvious recent motivations, as well as deeper, eminently political, causes to explain this forced passage of the Kasbah.
A shaky government genesis
To understand this umpteenth rebound illustrating the now chronic government instability, we must go back to the very particular genesis of the Mechichi government, resulting from the consecutive fall of the two governments Jemli and Fakhfakh, respectively for not obtaining confidence in Parliament and for resignation following suspicion of corruption.
The formation then presented by Hichem Mechichi being constitutionally that of the last chance before an imperative dissolution of the Assembly, President Kais Saïed then took over as much as discredit now reached Carthage as well. But not only was Saïed going to propose the discreet Mechichi, with whom he had quarreled since, at the head of the executive, he would also go beyond his prerogatives as President of the Republic by insisting on appointing several government ministers himself. Mechichi.
The Tunisian Constitution of 2014 puts in fact only the sovereign portfolios of Defense and Foreign Affairs under the partial tutelage of the President. A constitutional lawyer, Saïed will however demand in particular Taoufik Charfeddine, unknown to the battalion, to the Interior, alongside six other ministers including that of Culture who has since also suffered the same fate, ousted for the first gross mistake in October 2020 .
In this context, the ousting of Charfeddine comes in the continuity of this erosion of presidential power for the benefit of the government majority which will therefore have been right one by one of the unruly ministers. An inevitable scenario for a team caught up by its heterogeneity and its fragile initial construction, fundamentally flawed, even unconstitutional.
The failed coup of the Charfeddine – Saïed tandem
Since his appointment barely 4 months ago, Taoufik Charfeddine, a lawyer from Sousse who coordinated Saïed’s presidential campaign in this region, he has not escaped Hichem Mechichi whom the President of the Republic has summoned several times. “His man”, the Minister of the Interior, at the Palace of Carthage. In themselves, these interviews constituted a provocation, being contrary to the spirit of the institutions as defined by the Constitution, which provides less for a two-headed executive than an executive with a leader, in this case Mechichi, within the framework of ‘a mixed parliamentary system.
According to several corroborating sources, the blunder of too many was the unilateral project undertaken by Charfeddine in sensitive positions at the head of various national security directorates, probably driven in this by the very conspiratorial presidential doctrine which seems to fear more than anything that Saïed calls the “traitors”.
About ten departments are concerned. These would include the appointments of Sofien Rezgui to Nabeul, Hatem Zargouni to the Counterterrorism Pole, Iskander Moussa to the Directorate of Personalities Security, Mokhtar Hammami and Bilel Manai to the General Inspectorate of the National Guard.
Problem, Chrafeddine issued the order for these appointments against the advice of his own director of National Security, that of the director of the National Guard, as well as those of senior officials in his ministry. Another major concern, Hichem Mechichi had rejected these decisions and informed his Minister of the Interior of this disqualification.
But visibly assured of the support of Carthage, Charfeddine would have exceeded his governmental hierarchy by demanding the validation of his controversial proposals.
At a time when the outlines of a national dialogue were taking shape with a view to an end to the political crisis, this thunderclap exacerbates an already suffocating cohabitation which, by paralyzing an entire country, further mortgages the chances of any post-Covid-19 economic recovery.
