Tunisian President Kais Saied said on Thursday that he was acting in accordance with the law and the provisions of the Constitution, saying anyone who claims otherwise is “a liar and a slanderer”.
The Head of State was speaking at the opening of a meeting of the Council of Ministers at the Presidential Palace of Carthage, in the capital, Tunis, according to a video extract posted on the official Facebook page of the Tunisian Presidency.
“We act in accordance with the law, the provisions of the Constitution and on the basis of legal texts that we have drawn up throughout this (exceptional) period in the form of decrees and decree-laws”.
And the tenant of Carthage to ensure that he also acts in compliance with the provisions of the Constitution relating to rights and freedoms.
“Anyone who claims otherwise is a liar and a slanderer, who has not learned the lessons of history,” said Kaïs Saïed.
Earlier on Thursday, Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the Ennahdha movement and speaker of the Tunisian Parliament, whose work has been suspended since July 25, 2021, told Anadolu Agency that “the repeal of the Basic Law by President of the Republic, Kaïs Saïed, represents a threat to Tunisian society”.
“All the changes made since July 25 have no constitutional or legal basis,” Ghannouchi observed.
On January 27, 2014, Tunisia adopted a new Constitution, three years after the popular revolution which had deposed the regime of the former president, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
In his speech at the opening of the work of the Council of Ministers, the Tunisian president assured that he “was working to cleanse the country of those who defiled and ruined it (without naming any party by name)”.
He stressed that national sovereignty belongs to the people who exercise it in accordance with the Constitution, but the Basic Law should not turn into a tool to dominate the sovereignty of the people.
Tunisia has been in the throes of an acute political crisis since July 25. On this date, Kaïs Saïed, had taken a series of exceptional measures, notably suspending the work of Parliament and lifting the immunity enjoyed by deputies.
He had also suspended the Authority for the control of the constitutionality of laws and decided to legislate by way of decrees, just as he dismissed from his post the head of government, Hichem Mechichi, thus taking the head of the executive, assisted by a government whose head he appointed in the person of the academic Najla Bouden Romdhane.
Saïed criticized, in his speech, the positions of the opposition, as well as the alliances that were formed against his choices, declaring, “The Constitution is made to implement its own objectives and not those of people who change according to unnatural alliances sealed, unfortunately, during this period”.
Among the opponents of Kaïs Saïed’s measures is the popular initiative “Citizens against the coup”, a rally made up of independent activists, activists and citizens, joined by figures from the far left, nationalism and the Islamist movement in Tunisia, as well as former close associates of the Head of State at the Presidency, such as the former political adviser, Abderraouf Betbaieb.
