Tunisia politician vows to defeat president’s regime 

The deputy of Tunisia’s ruling Ennahda Party Noureddine Al-Buhairi yesterday said President Kais Saied would be “defeated”.

“We will defeat you, Kais, just as we had defeated Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Habib Bourguiba,” Al-Buhairi said during the party’s anniversary celebration, referring to the former Tunisian presidents.

He stressed that the movement would “continue to survive despite injustice, poverty, starvation and intimidation,” adding that the coup days were “numbered.”

Saied has held nearly total power since 25 July 2021 when he sacked the prime minister, suspended parliament and assumed executive authority citing a national emergency.

He appointed a prime minister on 29 September of the same year and a government has since been formed. In December, Saied announced that a referendum will be held on 25 July to consider ‘constitutional reforms’ and elections would follow in December 2022.

The majority of the country’s political parties slammed the move as a “coup against the constitution” and the achievements of the 2011 revolution. Critics say Saied’s decisions have strengthened the powers of the presidency at the expense of parliament and the government, and that he aims to transform the country’s government into a presidential system.

On more than one occasion, Saied, who began a five-year presidential term in 2019, said that his exceptional decisions are not a coup, but rather measures within the framework of the constitution to protect the state from “imminent danger”.

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