Several hundred people, including many pro-Islamists, demonstrated on Saturday in Tunis against the coup by President Kais Saied who took full powers on July 25, chanting slogans for a return to the legitimacy of power.
Responding to a call posted on social networks, the demonstrators gathered on Avenue Habib Bourguiba, which crosses the heart of the Tunisian capital, surrounded by an important security device. A drone from the Ministry of the Interior also flew over the scene.
The people want to bring down the coup, _We want legitimacy, Constitution, freedom, and dignity chanted the protesters, including figures from the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party. _Participants of the Al-Karama coalition, an ultra-conservative party, an ally of Ennahdha, also participated in this demonstration, as well as some left-wing figures.
It is a demonstration to show that there are Tunisians who reject the coup and the measures taken by President Saied, said Jawhar Ben Mbarek, a specialist in constitutional law and former adviser to the presidency. government, the figure of the Tunisian left.
On July 25, President Kais Saied sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, suspended parliament, and assumed judicial power for a renewable month, before extending these measures on August 24, until further notice.
He has since raised the possibility of amending the Constitution, adopted in 2014 and which established a hybrid system, neither presidential nor parliamentary, a source of recurring conflicts between the two powers.
“These measures violate the Constitution”
We are demonstrating to “protect our freedom and our rights after seeing consistent signs of regression undermining the democratic process” in Tunisia, he added.
Faced with this compact crowd, a few dozen activists favorable to Kais Saied demanded an outright dissolution of Parliament, chanting anti-Ennahdha slogans and hostile to its leader Rached Ghannouchi, president of the frozen Parliament.
To justify his coup, President Saied relied on article 80 of the Constitution providing for exceptional measures in the event of imminent danger to national security.
But several NGOs, opponents, political parties, magistrates and lawyers have said they fear an authoritarian drift”.
