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Tunisian President Kais Saied dismisses government, fires prime minister Mechichi, freezes parliament - The Washington Post
Jul 26, 2021 1 min, 41 secs
Tunisian President Kais Saied dismissed the country’s prime minister and froze parliament for 30 days on Sunday, posing a major test to the young democracy and escalating a political crisis that has built for months.

Saied announced that he was firing Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and that he and a new prime minister would take up executive authority.

Under Tunisia’s 2014 constitution, executive power is shared by the president, prime minister and the parliament.

By Monday morning, Tunisian troops had been deployed to the government palace in Tunis and also surrounded parliament, where they blocked Rachid Ghannouchi, head of the moderate Islamist party Ennahda and speaker of parliament, from entry.

Saied had still not named a new prime minister.

“We call on President Saied to stop this attempted coup and ask all our friends inside and outside to support the people of Tunisia in resisting the forces of dictatorship and tyranny.”.

Sharan Grewal, a professor at the College of William & Mary whose research focuses on democratization, religion and civil-military relations in the Arab world, called the developments “probably the most serious crisis since the protests of summer 2013.” Tensions that summer nearly overturned Tunisia’s democracy.

Sunday’s developments follow months of political infighting among Saied, Mechichi — whom Saied picked for prime minister last summer and later soured on — and the parliamentary coalition led by Ennahda, which supported Mechichi’s government.

As criticism of the government mounted in recent months, Saied, a law professor and political independent who won the presidency in a landslide in 2019, has maintained strong support in public opinion polls.

“Kais Saied is still the most popular figure in Tunisia, and beyond his base, his moves likely also appeal to Tunisians who loathe Ennahda and other political parties, as well as those who seek a stronger presidency,” Grewal said.

An early reaction to developments in Tunisia came Monday from the Islamist-led government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, which has supported Ennahda and other movements associated with political Islam throughout the Middle East

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