Rafik Abdessalem, one of the most prominent leaders of the Ennahda movement, published a post on his Facebook page, accusing the President of the Republic of inciting against his opponents and inflicting successive strikes on the Tunisian state, and that he did not rise to the level of the position and responsibility that the people assigned him to perform.
Abdessalem referred to the slap that French President Emmanuel Macron received from an angry French citizen, and although this is physical violence, the French President did not respond furiously nor did he ask the Public Prosecution to intervene to heal his feelings of anger against a French young man who practiced illegal violence against the first official in the state.
Rafik Abdessalem said that President Kais Saied does not differentiate between the requirements of governing and managing the state and his own feelings and emotions.
He also made it clear that in terms of form, it is not appropriate for a President of the Republic to speak in this form of tension and nerves to the point of stammering and being unable to control language, whereas whoever sits in the ruling chair is supposed to be calm, insightful and distinguish between what is personal and what is general.
And if the president’s assumption that the situation is dangerous, “was he not the main reason for making the situation dangerous and charged by his insistence on wrestling with the government he appointed?” In addition to “his refusal to carry out his constitutional duties, including signing a ministerial change approved by the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, then forcibly insisting on rejecting the Constitutional Court with allegations and legal tricks that no one approved of except his personal whims, in addition to his persistence in straining the situation and exploding conflicts in all directions to impose himself as the absolute ruler without checks or balances.”
Abdessalem considered that the president’s demand for the Public Prosecution Office to hold accountable those he describes as instigators against him on social media is a blatant interference in the work of the judicial authority and pressure on it to use the judiciary to strike opponents, silence mouths and nationalize freedom of expression, including the right to criticize the president and point out his flaws and distortions.
In addition to his request from the Minister of Justice to refer the list of representatives concerned with the lifting of immunity, “it is a clear and explicit acknowledgment that the list has not yet reached the House of Representatives. Accordingly, all that has been said on the matter is systematic deception and incitement against the Parliament.”
He also added that “the President says that he will exercise his constitutional powers, which he reduces to a coup process, with an arbitrary and fraudulent interpretation of Chapter 80 of the Constitution, so that he can disrupt the institutions and establish himself as the absolute ruler.”
The Ennahda leader and a former foreign minister concluded his statement by an advising tone: “Mr. President, the first step in abiding by constitutional duties is to ratify the Constitutional Court, stop disrupting institutions, inflame the situation, invest in crises, and insist on transferring opportunities to attack the constitution and disrupt institutions. The whole world addressed you in one clear language and told you to approve the Constitutional Court because it is an essential pillar of the democratic system, yet you insist on prevarication and escape.”
