TUNIS (Reuters) – Several thousand individuals demonstrated against Tunisian President Kais Saied on Friday, pointing to rising opposition to his seizure of energy and suspension of parliament 5 months in the past.
Called for the anniversary of the uprising that toppled autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali a decade in the past, it was the primary protest since Saied introduced a long-awaited highway map on Monday that retains parliament suspended for an additional 12 months.
The protest advised the highway map has accomplished little to assuage opponents who say Saied’s strikes have derailed Tunisia’s democratic transition, a comparative success story of the “Arab Spring” that toppled a number of autocrats in 2011.
The protesters gathered within the centre of Tunis, the place safety forces had been closely deployed. Waving Tunisian flags, they chanted: “Freedom, freedom, the police state is over!”, and “The individuals need the removing of the president!”.
Several hundred Saied supporters additionally rallied close by, waving Tunisian flags too.
Three events opposing Saied’s measures accused safety forces of stopping protesters at one finish of Habib Bourguiba Avenue from submitting into the vast, tree-lined road that has been the placement of main protests for a decade.
Issam Chebbi, secretary normal of the Republican Party, mentioned Saied supporters had been, nevertheless, let by means of.
‘PERPETUATE THE CRISIS’
Interior Minister Tawfiq Sharaf El-Din informed broadcaster Jawahara FM safety forces had handled everybody equally.
Saied’s plan features a constitutional referendum subsequent July, adopted by parliamentary elections on the finish of 2022.
“It is not a highway map to exit the disaster, however to perpetuate the disaster,” mentioned protester Jawhar Ben Mubarak, a constitutional regulation skilled and activist in “Citizens against the coup”. Saied “kidnapped the nation half a 12 months in the past and desires to abduct it for an additional 12 months”, he added.
The anniversary of the uprising had beforehand been marked on Jan. 14, when Ben Ali fled Tunisia.
But Saied modified the date to Dec. 17, when fruit vendor Mohammed Bouazizi set himself ablaze in Sidi Bouzid after an altercation with a policewoman about the place he had put his cart, igniting the uprising.
In Sidi Bouzid on Friday, a whole bunch of unemployed individuals additionally protested, chanting “work, freedom, dignity, patriotism”, a slogan of the 2011 uprising, witnesses and the state information company Tunis Afrique Presse reported.
Saied’s energy seize initially appeared to win broad assist amongst Tunisians fed up with years of financial stagnation and political paralysis. But opposition has sharpened, together with from main home gamers who had been initially supportive.
(Reporting by Mohamed Argoubi; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Giles Elgood and Andrew Cawthorne)
