Link to Article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/30/tunisias-president-saied-dissolves-parliament
Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has announced on state TV that he is dissolving the country’s parliament, eight months after suspending it in a July power grab. He said on Wednesday that “Today, at this historic moment, I announce the dissolution of the Assembly of Representatives of the people, to preserve the state and its institutions.” He made the announcement at a meeting of the National Security Council, hours after parliamentarians held a plenary session online and voted through a bill against his “exceptional measures.” Tunisia’s justice minister, Leila Jeffal, subsequently asked the attorney general to open a judicial investigation against members of a suspended parliament on charges of “conspiring against state security”, local media said. Saied has stated that the Parliament is trying to overthrow him in a coup. Tunisian parliamentarians voted on Wednesday to repeal presidential decrees suspending their chamber and giving Kais Saied near-total power, openly defying him in an online session, although he dismissed their meeting as illegal.
I find this whole situation funny as this leader seems to want total control but can’t seem to get it as this is not the first time he has attempted to dissolve Parliament. I don’t know enough about the situation to comment on whether his fears of a coup are real or not but from what little I have read I would guess they are not bound in reason. One thing I find hilarious about this whole situation is that this leader is a former law professor, which just adds to the irony in my opinion. On the geopolitical side of things, a power taking full power in a North African/Middle Eastern country would be a step back in my opinion from the Arab Spring in which citizens pushed for a democratic government in many of these countries however it would not be the first time democracy hadn’t worked out in the region.