A year has now passed since President Saied’s power grab on July 25th,2021 and the announcement of "emergency measures” (freezing of the parliament, dismissal of the government) on the basis of a very broad interpretation of Article 80 of the 2014 Constitution. Whereas Parliament should have remained in an open session and the (non-existent) Constitutional court should have revised these provisions within 30 days, the exception lasted over time. While there is still debate on how to qualify Kais Saied’s enterprise (coup, power grab, halt to democratic transition, etc.), the facts confirm the hypothesis already formulated in the bulletins issued by the Alliance for Security and Liberties bulletins on 50, 100 and 200 days after1. The President of the Republic has continuously broadened his powers to the detriment of the judiciary and the
legislative bodies, through a thorough dismantling of State institutions, all with the support of a security apparatus whose methods continue to be enshrined in impunity, illegality and arbitrariness. The fragile rule of law born after 2011, and more specifically from the 2014 Constitution, has been deeply weakened, raising fears of a return to an authoritarian régime backed by a police state. Several factors seem to confirm this scenario, starting with the concentration of powers of a President of the Republic who governs by decree-laws not subject to appeal under Decree 117, as well as through brutal blows on the independence of the judiciary and attacks on independent constitutional bodies; all this while numerous violations of fundamental rights and freedoms have marked a year of undivided rule of President Kais Saied.
“A break in continuity”, “Erosion of the Rule of Law and threat to freedoms” and “Concentration of powers and security drifts”. 1
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