Tunisia was, for 10 years, an exception, the only country to have set up a democracy in the wake of the Arab Spring, after having ousted its autocratic president Ben Ali in January 2011. A fragile democracy, perfectible but a democracy. Until the thunderclap of July 25, 2021: the president elected 2 years earlier, Kaïs Saïed decides to arrogate all the powers to himself, he says, to save the state. He dismisses the Prime Minister, dissolves the National Assembly and suspends the Constitution.
The opposition denounces an institutional coup. Western chancelleries are embarrassed. A new Constitution will be adopted by referendum, it devotes a super presidency.
In February 2023, Kaïs Saïed taxed sub-Saharan migrants with all evils and called for urgent measures to deport them. He accuses them of plotting to alter the demographics of predominantly Arab and Muslim Tunisia. This time, international condemnations are raining down.
On April 17, 2023, the Tunisian president again caused amazement: he arrested the leader of the opposition Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi, 81, accused of plotting against state security. Rached Ghannouchi who joins around twenty political figures and personalities imprisoned since February 2023 for various reasons.
How far will Kaïs Saïed’s authoritarian drift go? What remains of the hopes for democracy born in 2011? Has the Tunisian Revolution been confiscated?
Guests :
– Vincent Geisser, sociologist, researcher at CNRS and IREMAM. Co-directed with Amin Allal “ Tunisia, a democracy above all suspicion? », published by CNRS editions and Tunisian editions Nirvana in 2018
– Kmar Bendana, historian at the University of Manouba in Tunis
– Hatem Nafti, essayist, member of the Tunisian Observatory of Populism and author of ” Tunisia: towards an authoritarian populism? » published by Riveneuve and Tunisian editions Nirvana in 2022.
