Author: Thierry Brésillon
Affiliation: Independent Journalist (Based in Tunis)
Organization/Publisher: The Middle East Eye
Date/Place: August 10, 2021/UK
Type of Literature: Opinion
Word Count:1800
Link:https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/tunisia-should-constitution-be-revised
Keywords: Tunisia, Kais Saied, Coup, and constitution
Brief:
The author explains how Tunisia’s President Kais Saied suspended the institutional order. The author argues that Kais’s decision to suspend the constitution has destroyed Tunisians’ hopes in the Arab Spring and democracy and has threatened the state’s stability. The author identifies the main complaints against the constitution as mainly its central focus and concentration of power. He asks “how could the constitution’s structural flaw be addressed?”—one of the solutions suggested by Ennahda is to increase the power of the parliamentarian system, change the ballot mode to influence political formations, and permit more stable majorities. However, the author—based in Tunis—criticizes the political parties for focusing on their own interests. He argues that the 2014 constitution failed to maintain the promises of democracy and freedom. Hence, the problem lies not only in the political parties focusing only on their own interests but also in the concentration of power. The author reports that the “fracture between society and institutions” has never been so deep like this time, and that Saied’s decision was simply to insert himself into this gap.
By: Fadi Zatari, CIGA Senior Research Associate
