Tunisian President Kais Saied abruptly suspended Parliament on July 25, removed cabinet ministers including the minister of defense, assumed executive power over the judiciary, and deployed the military to enforce his rule. The military subsequently prevented elected members of parliament from meeting. Parliament, for its part, has characterized Saied’s actions as unconstitutional. Democracy advocates, both domestic and international, have called Saied’s actions a coup.
To gain more perspective on Tunisia’s rapidly unfolding and poorly understood crisis, the Africa Center has asked its North Africa expert, Dr. Anouar Boukhars, to share his insights.
What’s behind the governance crisis in Tunisia?
“Saied … has complained bitterly of being hamstrung by Tunisia’s political system and its constitutional rules that limit his powers.”
The governance crisis that has seen President Kais Saied grab power is the culmination of months of institutional gridlock and political infighting. This has largely pitted the President against Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and the Speaker of Parliament Rached Ghannouchi over the powers of the legislature and the respective roles of the dual executive—the president and the prime minister. Since he won a landslide victory in the presidential run-off contest in 2019, Saied, a political independent known for his disdain of party politics, has complained bitterly of being hamstrung by Tunisia’s political system and its constitutional rules that limit his powers to the realms of the military and foreign policy. Since he did not run under a political party, Saied has lacked support in Parliament to advance his agenda.
Under Tunisia’s dual executive system, the prime minister is the head of government directing the cabinet. The authorities of the prime minister were strengthened following Tunisia’s move to democracy in 2011 in response to the over-concentration of power by the longtime autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The prime minister is typically appointed by the president as the nominee from the party with a parliamentary majority. For nearly 2 years, Saied has locked horns with two prime ministers, Elyes Fakhfakh and Hichem Mechichi, whom Saied himself selected, after the deeply fractured Parliament proved unable to rally behind a consensus candidate.