clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Ennahda Movement: National consultation has failed, deterioration of financial situation complicates IMF agreement

March 26, 2022 at 4:24 pm

Supporters of Ennahda Movement in Tunis, Tunisia, on 27 February 2021. [Yassine Gaidi – Anadolu Agency]

The Executive Office of the Ennahda Movement on Friday indicated that the course that aims to dismantle the state and its institutions has failed. According to the movement, this failure: “Was clearly evident after the miserable failure of the national consultation,” which the Executive Office described as “an attempt to seize the will of people and to waste public money.”

In a statement issued by the Executive Office and published by the movement on its Facebook page, the office called for a: “Return to the constitutional legality and ending the exceptional situation.”

It criticised: “The existing central authority’s exertion to seize the powers of municipal councils and to marginalise the decentralised authority.” The Executive Office urged: “Respecting the right to organise and avoiding causing sedition between members and workers of municipalities and the elected municipal councils.”

The Executive Office stressed: “The necessity of managing the acute political crisis away from the political exploitation of the turbulent social circumstances and the disrupted economic conditions.”

READ: Tunisians protest during Independence Day, rejecting Saied’s ‘autocracy’ and ‘coup’

It also renewed: “The movement’s call for a comprehensive national dialogue to establish a political stability as an objective condition for formulating economic and social alternatives, the accomplishment of major reforms within the framework of participatory democracy and completing the establishment of constitutional institutions.” It believes that the existing authority seeks to dismantle and abolish these institutions to reach an absolute autocracy that undermines liberties and paves the way for a new dictatorship.

The office warned of: “The repercussions of the serious financial conditions, especially after decreasing the sovereign rating of the country, the disruption of the economy and the absence of effective measures in the Finance Law of the year 2022, for the benefit of small and medium economic enterprises.” It noted that this: “Complicates concluding an agreement on a new programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and threatens fiscal deficit, the bankruptcy of the country and impediment of investment.”

The Executive Office reaffirmed the movement’s assertion that: “The measures taken on 25 July, 2021, are a coup against the constitution and democracy. They contributed to complicating the political scene and exacerbated the economic crisis and social strain.” The office held: “The president accountable for the failure of the illegitimate government appointed by him in handling living conditions, the increase in prices and the serious shortage of basic materials, and huge appointments of inexperienced and inefficient employees in the administration.”