Tunisian President Kais Saied announced on state television that he was dissolving the country’s parliament eight months after suspending it in a July coup. “Today, at this historic moment, I am announcing the dissolution of the House of Representatives of the people, in order to preserve the state and its institutions,” he said on Wednesday. He made the announcement at a meeting of the National Security Council, a few hours after the deputies held a plenary session via the Internet and passed a bill against his “exceptional measures”. Following the online meeting, Tunisian Justice Minister Leila Jefal called on the attorney general to launch a judicial inquiry into members of a parliament suspended on charges of “conspiracy against state security,” local media reported. Sayed denounced parliament’s move as an “attempted coup” and said those responsible “betrayed” the nation. Tunisian lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favor of repealing presidential decrees that suspend parliament and give Caesar Said almost all power, openly opposing him in an online meeting, although he dismissed their meeting as illegal. The former law professor, who was elected in 2019 amid public outrage against the political order, fired the government on July 25 last year, froze the assembly and seized broad powers. He later gave himself the power to rule and legislate by decree and seized control of the judiciary, which opponents saw as further blows to democracy in the birthplace of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. Saied’s moves were initially welcomed by many Tunisians sick of the often deadlocked political system that emerged from the revolution that toppled longtime leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. However, a growing number of critics said it had moved the country, which is also facing a severe economic crisis, on a dangerous path back to totalitarianism.
