Thousands of people participated this Sunday in the center of the Tunisian capital in a protest rally against the policies of President Kaïs Saïed.
The Anadolu Agency correspondent reports that thousands of people gathered in front of the municipal theater in the center of the capital, at the invitation of the movement “Citizens against the putsch” (a popular initiative) and the “National Salvation Front ” (which brings together several soldiers and deputies).
The demonstration was organized in the presence of an important security device in the main street of the capital and the neighboring entrances leading to it. All persons who crossed the avenue were subject to security searches.
The demonstrators chanted slogans against the Head of State, in particular: “The people want what Saïed does not want”, “Down with the coup”, “No to the division of the people”, and “Constitution, freedom, national dignity”…
Protestors recited Al-Fatiha and observed a minute’s silence in memory of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by an Israeli army bullet in the northern West Bank last Wednesday.
On the sidelines of this action, the leader of the Ennahda movement, Sayed Ferjani, declared that the coup must be foiled and its sponsors must leave power. “Since this putsch, Tunisia has seen nothing good, and the citizen’s problem today has become obtaining flour and oil and receiving them on time.”
He told Anadolu Agency, “Before the coup, we were looking for a breakthrough to solve many important problems such as unemployment, and today all sectors are in bad shape, including agriculture and even sport, especially football”.
And Ferjani added, “national dialogue is in everyone’s interest, and if we want to know who is supported by foreign parties, we only have to look at the popular support of the head of state. The crowd present today is twice as numerous as that which supported Saïed. If they want a national dialogue, we are ready to discuss the situation of the country”.
For his part, the former adviser to President Saïed, Abdel Raouf Beltabib, told Anadolu Agency that his participation in this action with the demonstrators comes from his duty as a citizen who rejects authoritarian excesses and the coup d’etat.
“It is imperative to come to our senses and sit down at the dialogue table, which is the only solution to overcome the crisis in the country,” he stressed.
Tunisia has been in the grip of a serious political crisis since Saïed decided on July 25 to dismiss the Head of Government, Hichem Mechichi, and to freeze the powers of Parliament for a period of 30 days, within the framework of exceptional measures justified by the deterioration of the economic situation and the inability of the executive to manage the pandemic crisis.
Some political parties, including the Ennahdha movement, considered the said measures a “coup against the Constitution”, while others were in favor of it, considering that it was a “redress of the revolutionary process”.
