Pandemic turmoil sees PM axed and Parliament suspended
Publish date: 26 July 2021
Issue Number: 932
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Corruption
A decade after Tunisian protesters sparked a revolution which swept across the Arab world, the north African nation is burning again. Like SA, which experienced vicious violence this month, Tunisia’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled tensions to breaking point. While the country is regarded as the only democracy in the region, the deteriorating health situation is testing the limits of a political system riven by disputes between the leaders and Speaker of Parliament. Legalbrief reports that President Kais Saied yesterday sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and suspended Parliament after thousands of demonstrators clashed with police over the weekend. ‘We have taken these decisions ... until social peace returns to Tunisia and until we save the state,’ Saied said in a televised address after an emergency security meeting at his palace. BBC News reports that he said the Constitution allowed him to suspend Parliament if it was in ‘imminent danger’. ‘I warn any who think of resorting to weapons … and whoever shoots a bullet, the armed forces will respond with bullets,’ he said. Hours after the statement, military vehicles surrounded the Parliament building as people nearby cheered and sang the national anthem. CNN reports that years of paralysis, corruption, declining state services and growing unemployment had already soured many Tunisians on their political system before the Covid-19 pandemic hammered the economy last year.
Tunisian’s Parliamentary Speaker Rached Ghannouchi has accused Saied of mounting ‘a coup against the revolution and Constitution’. ‘We consider the institutions to be still standing and supporters of Ennahda and the Tunisian people will defend the revolution,’ Ghannouchi told Reuters. While the 2010 Tunisian revolution ushered in democracy, hopes that this would bring more jobs and opportunities have been dashed. BBC News reports that the country is battling a deep economic crisis and one of Africa's worst coronavirus outbreaks.
The WHO says that after keeping infections under control last year, Tunisia is now facing an ‘extremely concerning’ surge in cases. Just 7% of the population is fully vaccinated. The Financial Times reports that intensive care units are almost full with some hospitals experiencing shortages of oxygen, which is crucial for Covid-19 patients suffering breathing difficulties. The daily death toll has surpassed 200 – a record for the country of 12m people, where nearly 18 000 people have already died. The Military Health Department will take over management of the coronavirus crisis following last week’s high-profile axing of Health Minister Faouzi Mehdi. A report on the Africa News site notes that Saied's announcement comes amid tensions in government over the handling of the pandemic. ‘There's an extraordinary level of dysfunction at the head of the Health Ministry,’ Mechichi said. The Ministry this month conceded that the health system had ‘collapsed’ under the weight of the pandemic, which has caused more than 17 000 deaths in a population of around 12m. Mehdi last week initiated a temporary opening of vaccination stations to all Tunisians over 18, leading to stampedes. Mechichi accused Mehdi of making ‘criminal’ decisions that led to the chaotic and violent scenes.
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne at the French Ministry for Europe & Foreign Affairs told AFP that France last week alone sent more than 1m AstraZeneca and Janssen doses, enough to vaccinate 'a tenth of the adult population'. But either because of sluggish diplomatic efforts by Tunisia or the global shortage of doses, vaccines have arrived late. Tunisia has received just a sixth of the number of doses promised under the Covax programme, set up to ensure a fairer distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to lower-income countries. A report on the News24 site notes that Dr Hechmi Louzir of the Pasteur Institute in Tunis said donations would mean the vaccination programme could speed up, and thus reduce the spread of the virus. Tunisia could 'achieve our goal of vaccinating about 50% of the population by mid-October', he said.
