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Sacked Tunisian Prime Minister Appears Briefly, Al-Nahda Softens its Stance, Labor Union Demands Going Back to the Democratic Process

August 5, 2021

 

Tunisian soldiers in front of the Parliament, July 26, 2021	Sacked Tunisian Prime Minister, Hisham Al-Meshishi

 

 

Dismissed Tunisian PM Mechichi appears for first time in 11 days

 

Reuters, August 5, 2021, 6:29 AM

 

Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi appears in a news conference in Tunis, Tunisia, on June 3, 2021. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi/File Photo

TUNIS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Tunisia's anti-corruption authority aired photographs dated on Thursday of ex-prime minister Hichem Mechichi declaring his properties at the agency's headquarters, his first public appearance since his July 25 dismissal by President Kais Saied.

 

Saied invoked a national emergency in taking executive control of the government and freezing parliament in a move that was welcomed by protesters disgruntled over years of disorder and stagnation but branded a coup by his political opponents.

 

The anti-corruption authority's photos of Mechichi, posted on its website, appeared to dispel unconfirmed reports that he was under house arrest.

Reporting by Tarek Amara Editing by Mark Heinrich.

 

Dismissed Tunisian PM Mechichi appears for first time in 11 days | Reuters

 

Tunisia's Ennahda signals shift on political crisis

 

Reuters, August 5, 20212:56 AM

 

TUNIS, Aug 4 (Reuters) -

 

Tunisia's moderate Islamist Ennahda signalled a major shift on the country's political crisis on Wednesday as its leader said the president's seizure of governing powers should be turned into "a stage of the democratic transition".

 

Rached Ghannouchi, who is parliament speaker, had previously led the opposition to President Kais Saied's invocation of emergency powers to freeze parliament and sack the prime minister, moves he repeatedly labelled a coup.

 

However, in a statement Ennahda posted on Facebook on Wednesday he softened his language, saying instead that Saied's intervention should be an opportunity for reform.

 

After years of mounting public anger at the main political parties including Ennahda over economic stagnation, corruption and political paralysis, Saied's sudden announcement on July 25 appeared highly popular.

 

Within Ennahda, Ghannouchi's response to it has drawn growing concern and some senior figures as well as youth members have pushed for their veteran leader to step down.

 

The party's highest body, the Choura Council, was holding a meeting on Wednesday evening that had been postponed at short notice on Saturday because of internal disputes.

 

Although Saied has faced no other significant opposition to his moves, which were aided by the army as it surrounded the parliament and government buildings, his delay in announcing a new premier or a roadmap for the crisis has prompted jitters.

 

The powerful labour union, as well as Western allies France and the United States, have called on him to quickly announce a new government.

Reporting by Tarek Amara; writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis

 

Tunisia's Ennahda signals shift on political crisis | Reuters

 

 

Tunisian army backs takeover president, for now

 

The Daily Star, AFP, August 04, 2021 | 01:13 PM

 

TUNIS:

 

President Kais Saied launched his takeover of Tunisia by relying on the armed forces, an institution normally above politics, but analysts believe that retaining their support will depend on developments.

 

Since he was elected head of state in October 2019, Saied had generally shunned being seen with political leaders, instead spending time in public with the military.

In doing so, he set himself above the grind of daily party politics, aligning with an institution that embodies the state itself.

The armed forces have featured in many of his key decisions.

 

In December, Saied entrusted the military's health services with the running of a new Chinese-built hospital in the port city of Sfax.

And on July 25, it was in the presence of top officers that Saied declared he had sacked the prime minister and suspended parliament for a month.

Since his announcement, an armoured vehicle has prevented access to the parliament building and military units have been deployed at the Kasbah, the seat of government, and at other key institutions.

 

Meanwhile, Saied has named a military officer to head a ministerial taskforce to battle Covid-19 in the North African country, which has recently had one of the world's worst death tolls in the pandemic.

 

Among the first members of parliament to be detained was an elected official convicted by a military court in 2018 of criticising the army.

Moves such as these have led some critics to decry Saied's July 25 takeover as a "military dictatorship".

 

But Hatem M'rad, professor of political science and president of the Tunisian Association for Political Studies, told AFP the head of state cannot impose himself "without the support of the army".

 

"And for the moment", it "supports the president, who has prepared all this with its help", M'rad said.

 

He said the military will "follow him within the limits of the objectives set" to get the rule of law back on track.

 

"Kais Saied has earned the confidence of top officers in the military," according to political scientist Slaheddine Jourchi.

 

He "succeeded in convincing the army that Tunisia was in imminent danger", pressing it to act.

 

But Jourchi added that even though the military "may have lost some of its reserve, that does not mean we have been under military rule since July 25".

- 'A legitimate force' -

 

"The army does not govern, it supervises, it protects the president and supports his decisions without being in power directly," Jourchi said.

Retired officer Mokhtar Ben Nasr told AFP that in a regime where the head of state is also in command of the armed forces, the military is a "legitimate force in the president's hands to protect the state and the people from danger".

 

Tunisia's case is different from the military in other North African countries, said Agnes Levallois of the Mediterranean Middle East Research Institute (iReMMO).

The Tunisian army "will not play a role like it has in Egypt" or Algeria.

 

"For the moment, it is working in negotiation with the president of the republic", a democratically elected civilian, she said.

 

In Algeria, the army is accused of behind the scenes manipulation of a discredited regime that has been the target of popular protest for more than two years.

Egypt's Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the military until 2014 when he became president, after overthrowing the democratically elected Islamist Mohamed Morsi.

 

During the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, centred in Egypt on Cairo's Tahrir Square, the army played a key role.

But in Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began that year, the military held back and refused to intervene against demonstrators calling for the overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

 

"Unlike in Algeria or Egypt, where the military has a direct interest in the survival of the regime, the army in Tunisia prefers at times of acute crisis to urge politicians to act and stabilise the institutions" of state, wrote journalist and researcher Thierry Bresillon.

 

He pointed out that at the end of May, retired generals sent an open letter to Saied calling for conciliatory moves when he was mired in a standoff with parties including the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha, the largest party in parliament and an adversary. 

 

Tunisian army backs takeover president, for now | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

 

Sacked Tunisian Prime Minister, Hisham Al-Meshishi, disappeared without a trace, despite attempts by the Tunisian National  Organization to Protect from Torture!

 

Al-Masdar, August 4, 2021 

بعد اختفاء المشيشي: هيئة الوقاية من التعذيب تتدخل…

 

2021/08/04 أهم الأخبار, المصدر, سياسة

 

أفادت الهيئة الوطنيّة للوقاية من التعذيب أنه لا علم لها بإمكانيّة وجود قرار قضائيّ أو إداريّ يتعلّق بوضع رئيس الحكومة السّابق هشام المشيشي قيد الإقامة الجبريّة أو بمنعه من التنقل أو بمنع زيارته من قبل الغير.

 

وأكدت الهيئة في بلاغ لها، الأربعاء، أنها أدرجت منذ يوم 26 جويلية 2021، ملفّ المعني بالأمر ضمن ملفّات التقصّي حول إمكانيّة وجود شبهات احتجاز و/أو سوء معاملة، على معنى القانون الدّولي والقانون الجزائي الوطني. كما قامت الهيئة بعدّة اتصالات ببعض المقرّبين من المعني بالأمر، وبادرت الاتّصال به شخصيّا على هاتفه الجوّال الذي تأكّدت من أنّه قيد الاستعمال وبإرسال رسالة نصّية إليه على نفس الهاتف عبّرت فيها عن جاهزيّتها لزيارته إن رغب في ذلك، إلّا أنّها لم تتلقّ ردّا على ذلك لا بالقبول ولا بالرّفض. وأكدت الهيئة الوطنيّة للوقاية من التعذيب أنّها تواصل التقصّي حول هذه الوضعيّة وغيرها، داعية كلّ من يهمّه الأمر إلى الاتّصال بها على جميع الوسائط المتاحة لمدّها بأيّ معلومات يراها مفيدة.

 

بعد اختفاء المشيشي: هيئة الوقاية من التعذيب تتدخل… | المصدر تونس (webmanagercenter.com

 

The Tunisian Labor Union Issues a Statement about the President's Decrees of Suspending the Parliament and Sacking the Prime Minister, demanding going back to the democratic process as soon as possible. 

 

عاجل: اتحاد الشغل يحسمها ويكشف موقفه من قرارات رئيس الجمهورية والتطورات الأخيرة في البلاد…

2021/07/26 الأولى, المصدر, سياسة
 
اصدر الاتحاد العام التونسي للشغل منذ قليل بيان رسمي ابرز فيه موقفه من القرارات التي اعلن عنها رئيس الجمهورية والتطورات الاخيرة في ساحة السياسية وفي البلاد.
وفي ما يلي نص البيان:

“على إثر التدابير الاستثنائية التي اتخذها رئيس الجمهورية وفق الفصل 80 من الدستور توقيا من الخطر الداهم وسعيا إلى إرجاع السير العادي للدواليب الدولة وفي ظلّ تفشّي الكوفيد، فإن المكتب التنفيذي الوطني للاتحاد العام التونسي للشغل المجتمع بصفة طارئة، اعلن حرصه على ضرورة التمسك بالشرعية الدستورية في أي اجراء يتخذ في هذه المرحلة التي تمر بها البلاد لتامين احترام الدستور واستمرار المسار الديمقراطي واعادة الاستقرار للبلاد واسترجاع طاقتها في البناء والتقدم.

كما اكد على وجوب مرافقة التدابير الاستثنائية التي اتخذها الرئيس بجملة من الضمانات الدستورية وفي مقدّمتها ضرورة ضبط أهداف التدابير الاستثنائية بعيداعن التوسع والاجتهاد والمركزة المفرطة وتحديد مدّة تطبيق الإجراءات الاستثنائية والإسراع بإنهائها حتّى لا تتحوّل إلى إجراء دائم والعودة في الآجال إلى السيرالعادي وإلى مؤسّسات الدولة وكذلك ضمان احترام الحقوق والحريات بما فيها الحقوق الاقتصادية والاجتماعية دون تجزئة مع الاحتكام إلى الآليات الديمقراطية والتشاركية في أي تغيير سياسي في إطار خارطة طريق تشاركية واضحة تسطّرالأهداف والوسائل والرزنامة وتطمئن الشعب وتبدّد المخاوف.

وعبر الاتحاد حسب نص البيان الصادر عن مكتبه التنفيذي عن رفضه لجوء أيّ طرف مهما كان موقعه أو موقفه أو دواعيه إلى العنف ويعبّر فينفس الوقت عن رفضه القطعي لسياسة التشفّي أو تصفية الحسابات وضمان خروجسلمي من هذه المرحلة الدقيقة والصعبة. وحيا اتحاد الشغل المؤسّسة العسكرية ودعا كلّ الأطراف إلى وجوب النأي بها عن التجاذبات السياسية، إيمانًا منه بعراقة هذه المؤسّسة ووطنيتها وتمسّكها غير المشروط بحماية أمن البلاد والعباد، حفاظا على مدنية الدولة .

كما شدّد على مراجعة التدابير الخاصة بالقضاء لضمان استقلاليته. وحيا ايضا التحرّكات الاجتماعية والشعبية السلمية التي انطلقت في العديد من الجهات وشكّلت حلقة في سلسلة مراكمة النضال الشعبي والاجتماعي في تونس معبرا عن ادانته الأسلوب القمعي الذي انتهجته الحكومات تجاهها وأفضت إلى انتهاك الحرّيات واعتقال العديد من النشطاء وكادت تعود بالبلاد إلى مربّع الاستبداد.

وذكّر اتحاد الشغل في بيانه بأنّ الأزمة التي تردّت فيها البلاد قد سبق أن نبّه إليها الاتحاد عديد المرّات وثبّت تقييمه لها في ديباجة المبادرة الوطنية، وسجّل أنها قد بلغت اليوم أقصاها ووصلت إلى حدّ تعطّل دواليب الدولة وتفكّك اواصرها وأجهزتها وتردّي الوضعين الاجتماعيوالاقتصادي وتعمّق معاناة الشعب وتزايد الفوارق بين الفئات والجهات وتفشي الفساد ونهب المال العام واستشراء مظاهر المروق على القانون وخرقه بالغلبة طورا وبتطويع التشريعات والأجهزة ومنها القضاء طورا آخر لصالح لوبيات متنفّذة وأطراف استباحت الحقوق والبلاد ورهنتها في سياسة تداينية خطيرة فرّطت في السيادة الوطنية، وقد حان الوقت لتحميل المسؤوليات وإنهاء هذه الحقبة التي وضعت تونس على صفيح من نار.”

 

عاجل: اتحاد الشغل يحسمها ويكشف موقفه من قرارات رئيس الجمهورية والتطورات الأخيرة في البلاد… | المصدر تونس (webmanagercenter.com 

 

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