Tunisia: no solution to crisis without ‘comprehensive national dialogue’

Tunisia’s Ennahda movement said on Thursday that there is no solution to the country’s crisis except through a comprehensive national dialogue. It called for the “exceptional measures” taken by President Kais Saied in July to be lifted.

The announcement was signed by Ennahda’s chairman, Rashid Ghannouchi, after a meeting of its executive officials.

The measures imposed by Saied include freezing the work of parliament, lifting the immunity of parliamentarians and dismissing Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi.

A comprehensive national dialogue is needed, said the movement, to create the right environment “to accomplish major reforms, opening a political horizon, and returning power to the people.”

With regard to the possible replacement of the constitution, Ennahda pointed out that: “The 2014 constitution represented a social contract and gained great consensus and popular approval. It was the fruit of national dialogue that raised Tunisia’s image. It included mechanisms to amend its content, according to a consensus between all political parties and representatives of civil society.”

According to Oualid El Hajjam, an advisor to Saied, however, the political system established by the constitution in Tunisia “is no longer feasible.”

READ: Tunisia labour union warns against dismantling the state