This is How Kais Saied Became One of Tunisia’s Internal and External Crises
Tunisians and the world keep a close watch on President Kais Saied, as he headed to the Carthage Palace on October 23, 2019, to take his new position, officially carrying the hopes and dreams of millions, who elected him by an overwhelming majority of 73%.
Kais Saied said at the time in his inauguration speech: “Tunisia will remain victorious for all just causes. What Tunisian men and women are experiencing today astonished the whole world.” But today, not yesterday, Kais Saied is never the same. His opinions, positions and attitudes have changed.
The beginning of this change was by falling into the traps of normalization with Israel, even by turning a blind eye, and then clashing with the state institutions: an elected parliament and a government sanctioned by the House of Representatives.
He also spoke about the French protection instead of the occupation, leading to his recent visit to Egypt and his meeting with its coup chief AbdulFattah Al-Sisi, so how did Kais Saied turn against his principles? And how did it become an integral part of Tunisia's crises, the cradle of the Arab Spring, internally and externally?
An Exciting Visit
On April 9, 2021, President Kais Saied did a state visit to Egypt that lasted 3 days, which was his first since taking office, during which he met with the head of the Egyptian regime, AbdulFattah Al-Sisi, and that sparked a storm of anger and criticism in Tunisia and abroad.
Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki considered that "Said no longer represented him after he made this visit to Cairo." In a post on Facebook, Marzouki disavowed the visit, offering his apology to the late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, the victims of the dispersal of the Rab'a Al-Adawiya sit-in in Cairo, supporters of the January 25 Revolution, and political prisoners in Egypt.
Marzouki said that President Kais Saied "Does not represent the revolution that allowed him to gain power, nor does it represent Tunisia's independence, the unity of its state, its interests and values, and most important of all, its honor, which is the most precious possession of a person or a people."
As for the former Tunisian foreign minister, Dr. Rafik Abdel Salam, commented on the visit via Facebook, saying: “The problem of Kais Saied is that he is looking for opportunities to transfer the ruling struggles he is fighting from the inside out, just as he did with the ambassadors he sat with in the Carthage Palace to insert them into his political struggles. Absurdity, and today he is looking for inclusion in a regional umbrella hostile to democracy, peoples' revolutions, and the spirit of liberation in the region.
These signs and the prevailing state of anger against Kais Saied were the result of constant contradictions and controversies raised by the man, especially in the recent period, with his frequent collision with Tunisian institutions and parties that have large popular bases.
The Legitemacy of the Institutions
Kais Saied, who came through free elections in which the sects of the people participated, represents the head of the elected institutions of Parliament and the government, within the context of a democratic state.
Instead of respecting these rules,Said addressed the people with a shocking speech on April 9, 2021, in which he declared that "Tunisia is on the bed of sickness and the doctor is heading to the pharmacy to bring it medicine, as for the medicine, it is a respected national parliament and a fully responsible ministry."
This statement expressed the depth of the crisis between Said and his country's elected institutions, which represent a real concern for him, as he is constantly questioning the legitimacy of the elected institutions because they are “not based on legality,” as he put it, and he calls for a different political and electoral system and believes that the party system is fleeting, and calls on Tunisians to change this situation.
There is also a dispute between Kais Saied and Prime Minister Hisham Al-Mishishi, since January 16, 2021, after the latter announced a partial government reshuffle, but the president did not invite the new ministers to take the constitutional oath, considering that the amendment was marred by violations.
In that context, the Tunisian writer Mohamed Ahmed Al-Qabsi published an article on March 18, 2021, to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper, in which he said, “Two months after the ministerial crisis in Tunisia, the rift continues between the President of the Republic, Kais Saied on the one hand, and the heads of government and parliament, Hisham Al-Mashishi and Rashid Al-Ghannouchi, stagnated amid each party holding its position, and it became a serious struggle.
He added, "The repercussions of the crisis have reached calls from many parliamentary blocs, experts and professors that are active in the political scene, to amend the political system, and this is what Kais Saied wanted, while they unanimously agree that the President of the Republic has no right to accuse proposed ministers of corruption citing the constitution. Corruption, as they see it, is serious and is decided only by the judiciary, as the president in this case appeared to be a court of comment that overrides what Parliament has approved.
He stressed Kais Saied's attempts to overthrow the parliament: “The president of the republic and his supporters from some opposition parties, such as the democratic current and the people's movement think it is possible to change the political system, to get out of the current political crisis but no way"
This was one of Saied's contradictions at the internal level and the state administration in Tunisia, and his statements and policy made a deep rift in the heart of legitimate institutions, and at the popular level. As for externally, the president of the republic was controversial in issues that were considered peremptory in his statements and dueling before he became president.
Normalization Ditches
Saied's stark contrasts came regarding the issue of normalization with Israel. When he was a presidential candidate, he flirted with the patriotism of the people known for their complete rejection of all forms of normalization and cooperation with Israel, and on October 11 ,2019
Saied said during a witnessed television debate: “Normalization is a treason. And he should be tried with an entity that has displaced and haunted an entire people".
He stressed that "the word normalization is a wrong word in the first place. We are in a state of war with a usurping entity." When asked about allowing visits to synagogues in Tunisia, he categorically refused entry to those holding an Israeli passport, saying, "We deal with Jews and accept them, but we do not accept them as Israelis."
After Saied came to rule in Carthage, politics changed and the tone of defiance subsided, but the first fall came in February 2020, with the sudden dismissal of Tunisia's ambassador to the United Nations, Moncef Al-Baati.
The American Foreign Policy magazine confirmed, "The dismissal came immediately after the Tunisian ambassador led diplomatic negotiations with the representative of the State of Indonesia on a draft resolution condemning (former) US President Donald Trump's plan in the Middle East, regarding the deal of the century and normalization with Israel."
Foreign Policy stated that according to three UN diplomatic sources, two of them said, "The newly elected Tunisian President, Kais Saied, exempted Al-Baati, after a complaint from the United States of America."
Saied's second fall occurred on July 6, 2020, when he issued a presidential order granting 135 people Tunisian nationality, including 34 Palestinians, but he excluded Mrs. Magda Zouari, the widow of the martyr Muhammad al-Zouari, the Tunisian activist in the Palestinian Hamas movement, who was assassinated by the Israeli Mossad In 2016, in front of his home in Sfax, Tunisia.
Mrs. Majida Zouari, his wife, had applied to obtain Tunisian nationality on more than one occasion, and her exclusion came at the hands of Said, asking questions about the reasons, especially since Tunisian public opinion considers her a priority in honor of her struggling husband.
The third failure was represented by the President of Tunisia on August 19, 2020, when he received the Palestinian ambassador to Tunisia, where Saeed implicitly indicated his position on the normalization of the UAE with the occupation, saying, “We do not interfere with the choices of some countries, and we do not confront them, and we respect the will of countries. They are free in their choices and before their people. "
At that time, Tunisia was burning with the sit-ins in protest against the Emirati-Israeli agreement ,in addition to the widespread campaigns launched by activists on social media, coinciding with the issuance of political parties and civil society organizations rejecting and denouncing statements.
However, a large part of the messages sent by Tunisians on the street, on communication sites, or through organizations and parties, were addressed to President Qais Said, reminding him of describing normalization during the election campaign as "high treason."
French Protectorate
On June 23, 2020, the Tunisian President sparked widespread controversy, on his first official visit to France, against the background of statements that were described as detracting from the Tunisian national sovereignty regarding the period of French colonialism and its crimes in Africa, and that it wasted the blood of the martyrs of Tunisia who resisted the French occupation, and were subjected to torture and death for their country.
During a media interview on the sidelines of the visit with France 24, when President Kais Saied was asked about his position on the list presented to the Tunisian Parliament asking France to apologize for the colonial period, everyone was surprised when he described the French colonialism in Tunisia as "protection", and that anyone who asks for an apology, condemns himself.
When the interlocutor to the Tunisian president mentioned that his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron had confessed to France committing crimes against humanity in Algeria, and whether the matter is the same in the two countries and about the right of Tunisians to a French apology, Said stressed that the matter is different from their neighbor Algeria.
Saied said: "Tunisia was under a protection system and not under direct colonialism like Algeria, and an apology could be made in other ways, through projects and agreements."
Not only this but he was attacking the list put forward by the "Dignity Coalition" in the Tunisian parliament, considering it " not innocent," and asking, "Why do we demand an apology after 60 years ?"
