Tunisia: MPs call for an end to attempts to disrupt parliament 

Members of parliament in Tunisia from various parliamentary groupings have demanded that the competent authorities should take measures to stop attempts by the head of the Free Destourian Party to “disrupt” parliament and MPs in their work.

During a plenary session in parliament yesterday, the deputies denounced Abir Moussi and her party colleagues for holding banners which described the assembly as the “Parliament of the Muslim Brotherhood”.

The leader of the Heart of Tunisia party, Osama Al-Khulaifi, said that “We will confront the coup attempts, and the endeavour to disrupt the work of state institutions and parliament, and recklessness.”

Ayashi Zamali of the National Party called on the presidency of the parliament to “take measures” against the Free Destourian Party to put an end to its “insults”. Other MPs also expressed their dissatisfaction with Moussi and her colleagues, including Samia Abbou of the Democratic Party.

READ: ‘Dissolving parliament is not an option’, says Ghannouchi

Meanwhile, Samir Delo MP, of the Ennahda Movement, asked Moussi to apologise to a cleaning worker in parliament, whom she is alleged to have insulted earlier. Parliamentary employees organised a protest at the parliament on Friday. They denounced Moussi, who allegedly exposed them to pressure and harassment while they were performing their duties.

A day earlier, Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi and members of his office strongly condemned what they described as Moussi’s attempt to disrupt parliamentary work, undermine the prestige of the state, harm the image of the constitutional institution and its employees, and defame journalists.

Moussi is on record as opposing the 2011 revolution that toppled the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and voicing her hostility to the Ennahda Movement.