by ZOE ALEXANDRA
The Tunisian people have resisted the authoritarian moves of Kais Saied and insist on the defense of democracy and freedom
Tunisian President Kais Saied took the political crisis in Tunisia a step further in holding a constitutional referendum on July 25. Despite the low participation in the vote, less than 30% of the electorate, Saied has claimed the process as a concrete victory in favor of his proposed constitution. Progressives in the country have rejected the constitution and see it as the latest in a series of moves by the president to undermine democracy and establish autocratic rule.
The referendum was widely opposed by progressive and left groups across Tunisia, many of whom formed a coalition to boycott the vote and demand a return to democratic order. For many, the measures taken by Saied threaten to undermine the gains made in the 2011 revolution, many of which were concretized in the 2014 Constitution. One of the major protests the coalition organized days before the referendum was violently repressed by police and security forces. Several people were injured and hospitalized and 11 people were arrested.
The Workers’ Party of Tunisia has been on the front lines of this struggle in defense of democracy and the gains of the revolution. Peoples Dispatch spoke to Ali Jallouli, a leader of the Workers’ Party, to understand the significance of the referendum and the new constitution, and what this means for democracy in the country.
Jallouli highlights that one of the main achievements of the Tunisian revolution was “the significant change in the form of power by overcoming the authoritarian, dictatorial form that characterized the period before January 14, 2011, whether it was the era of General Ben Ali, Bourguiba, or even the monarchy that lasted for several centuries.”
The goals of the revolution have not only been subverted in the erosion of democratic institutions. Jallouli adds that the demands for economic justice for the people have yet to be fulfilled, and that in the last period there have been significant setbacks in the economic and social conditions of the Tunisian people. Record high inflation and enormous growth of the informal or parallel economy has meant that the majority of the masses have entered a situation of “despair and frustration”, which he argues has been taken advantage of by Saied to attack his political opponents but even he has failed to improve the economic situation.
He emphasized that despite the fact that according to Saied the constitution has been approved, the struggle is not over. He vowed that the Workers’ Party “as it struggled against tyranny and dictatorship in the era of Bourguiba and Ben Ali, will spare no effort in defending the aspirations of our people and the demands of the revolution. The Tunisian people carried out a clear revolution in terms of their economic, social, and political demands and in terms of their slogans and aspirations. We want to preserve the revolutionary spirit and defend the demands of our people.”
Read the full interview below:
Peoples Dispatch: Recently, Kais Saied, the president of Tunisia, organized a referendum on a new constitution which saw comparatively low participation from prior electoral processes. The Workers’ Party and other organizations have been involved in a campaign against the referendum, the constitution, and other moves by Tunisia’s president which they allege undermine democracy. Can you tell us a little bit about the context and why you are opposed to the constitution?
Ali Jallouli: From the beginning we were against the referendum and against the constitution promoted by President Kais Saied because we see it as part of the coup. As soon as the leader of the coup seized all of the authorities and institutions, it became clear to him that the most important step would be to freeze the work of the 2014 constitution by declaring that Tunisia’s crisis is a constitutional crisis and a new constitution is required.
In fact, we, along with many progressive and democratic forces, were aware that Kais Saied’s purpose stemmed from his desire to produce a new constitution that gives broad powers to the president. This is especially true given his struggle with the parliamentary majority of the Ennahda movement and its government. Since he reached the presidency at the end of 2019, it was not a struggle over economic, social policies, and programs, but rather a struggle over powers, including the powers of the president and the powers of the government and parliament.
Saied’s plan was to rewrite the constitution and then hold a referendum on it. This constitution gives imperial powers to the president. It makes the president the head of the executive authority and gives him control over parliament. In the new constitution, the parliament is no longer the body that prepares the budget and finance law, it is now the task of the president. Additionally, there is no oversight body over the presidential institution during the performance of its duties and it essentially has eternal immunity, whether during the performance of its duties or after it. This makes the president above accountability, which was never the demand of the Tunisian people. The demand of the Tunisian people during the revolt at the end of 2010 was for freedom and democracy. It was a revolution against the Ben Ali regime, which symbolized absolute autocracy, meaning that the Tunisian people are against absolute autocracy.
It must be added that the president essentially prepared the constitution on his own. The formal bodies that he formed were full of people close to him, whether it was constitutional law professors such as Sadiq Belaid, Amin Mahfouz and the parties loyal to him, who were assigned to make a formal consultation and met by organizing a few meetings in order to prepare a draft. But even this draft was scrapped in order for the president to prepare his own text, which does not contain a separation between powers. In fact, there is no recognition of powers, but rather it considers them as mere functions. There is no acknowledgment of the civil state, not even a mention that rights and freedoms should not be violated. There is the famous Chapter Five, which talks about the purposes of Islam, which are contextually intended to be the “purposes of Sharia”, and more important than that there are no guarantees about the state of law and freedoms.
For all these reasons, our natural and logical position is to be against the referendum and this constitution, and for this we organized, according to our abilities and capabilities, many struggles and protests, in the capital and regions.
In the context of efforts to raise awareness of the danger of the new constitution, a coalition was formed and adopted the name of the “National Campaign to Drop the Referendum”. Many civil organizations rejecting the referendum, such as the Human Rights League, the Journalists Syndicate, the Democratic Women’s Association, the Union of the Unemployed, etc. are among the progressive democratic organizations that joined.
The culmination of these activities was on Friday, July 22, when a huge gathering was organized on the main street in the capital, Habib Bourguiba or “The Revolution Street” with the participation of many parties and organizations. This gathering witnessed confrontations and terrible repression by the repressive forces, including the police of Kais Saied. The result was that 11 protesters, including activists from the Workers’ Party, were arrested and were subjected to all forms of violence. However, the solidarity they received from the human rights movement, the lawyers and the democratic movements was effective in forcing their release. On the same day, many militants were attacked in the regions of Sousse, Nabeul, Gafsa. Some cases were fabricated against labor activists under the pretext that they carried out field activity calling for the travesty of the referendum to be dropped.
PD: What does the 2014 constitution mean for movements in Tunisia? Why is it under attack?
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