While President Kaïs Saïed has given his agenda for the coming year with legislative elections in December 2022 as the climax, his opponents see it as a way of extending his full powers by one year. Ten of them went on hunger strike this week.
With our correspondent in Tunis, Amira Souilem
In this wealthy district of Tunis, a house is always full. It previously hosted the activities of the CPR, a party founded by Moncef Marzouki, former Tunisian president, it now houses ten hunger strikers.
Like their host now exiled in France, they say they are entering into resistance. All day long, friends and relatives come to support them.
“Our body to defend our cause”
Ezzedine Ben Mbarek Hazgui, a former opponent imprisoned under Bourguiba, is the movement’s spokesperson. ” We have demonstrated five times. We were terribly beaten up by the police apparatus. So, we said to ourselves, we only have our body to defend our cause. After ten years of freedom, I find myself obliged to redo what I did when I was twenty, it’s really shameful, catastrophic. “
While the democratic and political life of the country has been frozen since Kaïs Saïed granted himself full powers last July, the list of their concerns continues to grow. ” There are deputies in prison tried by military courts. The putschist is influencing the judiciary and putting it under his orders. “
Opponents who are already calling for demonstrations against what they qualify as the return of the dictatorship. They have made an appointment on January 14, the eleventh anniversary of the fall of Ben Ali.