President Saied warns that Tunisia is going through its worst political crisis
Tunisia's President Kais Saied has warned that the country is facing the worst political crisis in recent years and urged the plethora of independent parties and MPs who make up the parliament to put aside their differences to bring it out of the "state of chaos" in which it finds itself. In a message distributed to the press, the president - elected last September - warned that the Constitution grants him prerogatives such as the possibility of dissolving the House, but that he hopes not to have to resort to drastic solutions of this kind.
Said's warning came just minutes after a meeting with the Speaker of the House and leader of the conservative Islamist-leaning Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi, to find a way out of the instability that has dominated the country since the president forced the resignation of Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh on Wednesday. "The situation cannot continue. I will not stand idly by in the face of the neglect of state institutions. We have laws that preserve the proper functioning of state institutions. It is no longer a question of tolerating blockades," he warned.
The crisis began in mid-June, when the Tunisian National Authority for the Fight against Corruption (INLUCC) submitted a report to the Assembly concluding that the Prime Minister had committed a "conflict of interest" offence for failing to declare his participation as a shareholder in companies contracted by the State, and urged him to regularize his situation within a maximum period of one month. At the end of this period, Ennahda, the first force in the House and Fakhfakh's partner in the Executive, announced that he had the necessary support to file a motion of censure which would have given him the right to present an alternative candidate.
The Prime Minister, who denies the charges and had threatened a Cabinet reshuffle the day before, was nevertheless forced to resign after a meeting with the head of state, who now has the right to appoint a replacement before 27 July next.
If the person elected does not gain the confidence of the House within two months, Parliament will be dissolved and elections will be called at the end of the year. In this context, several political parties without parliamentary representation and social organizations in the last hours asked Fakhfakh to leave "immediately" the acting Executive that he has formed after expelling the Ennahdha ministers and to delegate his power to one of the members of that cabinet.
The situation is extremely critical in parliament, which has been blocked by the filibustering action of the leader of the Free Destuarian Party (PDL), Abir Moussi, who represents the interests of those who prospered during the dictatorship of Zinedin El Abedin Ben Ali, who was overthrown in 2011. The lawyer took the stand last week to prevent Ghannouchi from taking his seat, and opened a crossroads of accusations that prevented the session in which progress should be made on the formation of the Constitutional Court, pending since 2015.
Moussi accuses Ennahda of being a terrorist organization because of its ideological links with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and has denounced, also without success, an alleged irregularity in its legalization process that would invalidate it as a party. Seventy-five MPs from various parties have also filed a motion of confidence against Ghannouchi on the grounds that the rules of the House have been violated, a complaint which is still pending.