Tunisia’s president dissolved Parliament on Wednesday, after lawmakers voted to dam emergency powers he had given himself final yr, making an attempt to harden his sole grip on the federal government and courting what might be the nation’s severest political disaster because the 2011 revolution.
Last July, amid mass protests over poverty, corruption and the dealing with of the pandemic, President Kais Saied suspended Parliament, dismissed his personal prime minister and different officers, and granted himself extraordinary powers, in what his critics denounced as a coup.
But on Wednesday, lawmakers held a web based assembly, defying Mr. Saied’s warning that the session was unlawful, and a majority voted towards his energy seize, which they stated violated the nation’s Constitution.
Shortly afterward, in a gathering of his National Security Council, the president stated the nation was dealing with “unusual” instances.
“We are living today, unfortunately, through a coup attempt, but it has failed,” he stated, then introduced that he was dissolving Parliament “to protect the government, the institution and the Tunisian people.” His workplace posted video of his assertion on Facebook.
His authorities stated it will examine the lawmakers who had taken half in Wednesday’s session.
In 2011, a well-liked rebellion in Tunisia toppled the dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years in energy — the primary of protests within the area that got here to be generally known as the Arab Spring. But Tunisia’s was the one lasting democracy to emerge from that heady upheaval, and it has been a troubled and fragile experiment in standard rule.
Mr. Saied, a former constitutional legislation professor who was seen as being above the mire of politics, was elected in a landslide in 2019. But he has develop into steadily extra autocratic, ruling by decree, jailing opponents, suspending components of the Constitution, dismissing the Supreme Judicial Council and proscribing press freedom.
Political unrest continues to shake the nation, stoked by partisan divisions and a sinking economic system. The president has promised to have a brand new Constitution drafted and put to a referendum this yr, adopted by the election of a brand new Parliament.