The president of a North African country is being accused of carrying out a coup after he decided to throw out the government and impose a curfew.
Tunisian President Kais Saied has thrown out the country’s prime minister and parliament, and has implemented a strict curfew, fearing the onset of violence after supporters and opponents of his move took to the streets to face each other.
As the Tunisian people continue to express their frustration over the state of the country’s government and its major political parties, the possibility of confrontation between supporters of the establishment and Saied’s supporters is rising.
Though no major violence has been reported yet, the curfew has been imposed as a preemptive measure, limiting public gatherings for at least a month.
According to reporting from News Hour First, “Tunisia has been widely regarded as a rare success story from the 2011 Arab Spring, which began in the country with the largely peaceful overthrow of a longtime president. While the democratic government in Tunisia has outlived most of the reforms of the other Arab Spring nations, the political situation has not been as beneficial as many had hoped it might be.”
The Tunisian government’s failure to adequately respond to the COVID pandemic and the resulting economic backlash has highlighted the concerns of the country’s citizens. The people have been especially outspoken in their anger at Ennahda, the country’s largest political party. Due to the party’s significant majority in parliament, they have been at the receiving end of most of the blame for the failures of the Tunisian government.
President Saied, a social conservative and populist who has often been compared to Donald Trump, was elected in 2019 with a promise to fight against Tunisia’s establishment political parties. Citing an emergency, Saied used his constitutional powers as president as a pretext for throwing out the rest of the government.
The leader of Ennahda has characterized the move as an attack on democracy, and has urged the party’s supporters to take to the streets to protest.
President Saied has widespread support from the citizens of Tunisian, many of whom have called his decision to throw out the government a continuation of the 2011 revolution, rather than a betrayal.
