French Newspaper: “Democracy in Tunisia at the End of its Throes.”

A French newspaper said that the new wave in Tunisia of the Coronavirus, police violence, and political and economic tensions are increasingly weakening Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi.

"Le Monde" pointed out that "the pictures and videos of the health situation in the central city of Kairouan, caused a shock, at a time when the summer heat attracted the first swimmers to the Tunisian beaches."

Pictures spread on social networking sites show exhausted doctors in the face of the influx of patients infected with Corona, patients rushing to the hospital on towed carts, and municipal services whose work was dominated by funerals, and demonstrators loudly calling for the resignation of the ruling authority.

With a positive rate of 50 percent and a vaccine campaign still in its infancy, the region is suffering the brunt of the third wave of Corona, like 3 other states located in northern Tunisia.

The government issued a new decision to impose a comprehensive quarantine there for a period of one week, starting from June 21, 2021.

 

In trouble

The situation in Kairouan highlights the failures of managing the increasingly criticized health crisis, in an explosive political and social context.

Political analyst Mahdi Al-Ish asks, “The numbers are disclosing the situation. When Mechichi took office in September 2020, there were several hundred deaths due to Corona, and today we have reached nearly 14,000 deaths. You have to wonder why we failed in the past five months to stop this third wave.

Some blame the slow vaccination campaign, which began in mid-March 2021, but is subject to fluctuations in supply, with long delays in the delivery of doses.

Le Monde considered that the dramatic emergence of the epidemic "is only one aspect of the multifaceted crisis facing the Tunisian government."

Al-Meshishi was also criticized in January 2021 for the way he confronted the demonstrations by young people from popular neighborhoods against unemployment and high prices, which led to the arrest of nearly two thousand people.

In recent days, the head of government, who also holds the Ministry of the Interior, has faced the wrath of the residents of Sidi Houssein in the western suburbs of Tunis.

The killing of a young man in mysterious circumstances, while he was being arrested by the police, and the recording of a video clip of another young man, who was beaten and stripped by the police, in the same neighborhood, sparked a wave of discontent within civil society.

For sociologist Aziz Krichen, these frequent incidents between police and citizens testify that "the government is in trouble, besieged with financial problems to finish the 2021 budget which must comply with the wishes of donors. He is preparing unpopular reforms and thus trying to crush any form of resistance."

The authorities are negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a loan of 3.3 billion euros.

Tunisia must also start paying off other loans this summer, as the country still does not see an end to the economic crisis.

Overcoming the Crisis

At the same time, relations with the legislature - especially the opposition - continue to increase tension.

In mid-June 2021, the government's presidency filed a complaint of violence against the head of the Free Constitutional Party representative Abeer Moussa, and other members of the party who had boycotted ministers' hearings in a public session by banging on loudspeakers.

This movement is a qualitative leap that turns the page for several months of spinning in a vicious circle of sit-in in front of Parliament to demand the resignation of Parliament Speaker and leader of the Ennahda movement Rashid Ghannouchi, as well as the resignation of the Prime Minister.

Al-Meshishi, who has been weakened, is struggling to find allies to maintain his government in a country where nine distinct prime ministers have already held office since the 2011 revolution.

Even the President of the Republic, Kais Saied, has been in open conflict with him since the cabinet reshuffle that he approved in January 2021, which Said has not yet agreed to.

Despite these differences, the head of state brought together Al-Meshishi and three former prime ministers on June 15, 2021, in an attempt to find a way out of the crisis.

A few days later, the powerful active Tunisian Labor Union (UGTT) returned to the fore, accusing Saied of proposing its own road map and bypassing the national dialogue, an initiative of the union that has been trapped for 6 months, due to the lack of consensus within the political class.

The presidency responded immediately, and spoke of a misunderstanding, without discouraging the Tunisian General Labor Union from calling for early elections.

In this "fragmented" political situation, as sociologist Krichen describes it, "democracy appears to be in its throes."

The sociologist notes that "everyone is now claiming to be the victim of a conspiracy that would threaten the foundations of the system."

At the June 15 meeting, the head of state denounced a plot to impeach or assassinate him and this statement prompted the opening of a judicial investigation.

And in January 2021, the president actually claimed that he was the target of an assassination attempt by sending a message in the form of a poisoned envelope.

Le Monde concluded by saying: "The suspected envelope in the end did not contain any toxic substances, according to the investigation conducted by the Public Prosecution."