The Democratic Current (Attayar), Ettakatol, Afek Tounes and Al Joumhouri which stand as a coordination for the defence of democracy called at a press conference on the President of the Republic to return to the democratic process and to engage in reforms within the mechanisms of the Constitution of 2014.
Secretary-General of Ettakatol Khalil Zaouia said “we are not totally opposed to the decisions of President Kais Saied and we reach out to him for a return to the revolutionary democratic process but in a participatory manner.
Our goal, he explained, is to build a third pole based on the priority principle of respect for the law and the Constitution. The pole, he added, tends to get more involved by putting forward proposals for reform on the electoral law, the laws regulating political life and the amendment of the Constitution according to its own mechanisms.
For his part, Secretary-General of the Democratic Current Ghazi Chaouachi stressed that the coordination once again reaches out to the President of the Republic for a return to the democratic process provided that a roadmap is established in a participatory manner. If the president persists in his position, we will opt for any form of possible mobilisation to defend democracy and the achievements of the revolution, he warned.
He recalled the position of his party and its deputies who fiercely opposed the Mechichi government and planned to sue for its failure to deal with the epidemic crisis that has caused hundreds of deaths.
The parties forming the coordination, he added, initially saw the July 25 decisions as an opportunity to create a new landscape and expected a participatory roadmap to be developed. But, he regretted, the President of the Republic chose to rush ahead and centralise power.
According to him, the presidential decree 117 dated September 22 has established the cancellation of the Constitution and has struck the country of illegitimacy, and the President of the Republic has seized power and undermined the achievements of the revolution.
The parties forming the coordination, he said, are not for a return to the pre-July 25 governed by corruption lobbies and Ennahdha and its allies, but aspire to a new landscape where the judiciary is independent, obsolete laws are revised and the fight against corruption and the defense of human rights are priorities.
Secretary-General of Al Joumhouri Issam Chebbi announced, meanwhile, that consultations are conducted with other parties and meetings are held with national organisations including, in particular, the Tunisian General Labour Union on ways to defend their common claims. Other meetings are planned, according to him, with the Union of Tunisian journalists, the Tunisian League of Human Rights and the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women with a view to forming a broad front to defend democracy.
For his part, Secretary-General of Afek Tounes party Fadhel Abdelkefi said he feared the Lebanese scenario in Tunisia where the unemployment rate has risen to 65% and the Lebanese pound has lost 80% of its value, deploring the fact that there is no longer talk of the complementary finance law 2021 or the state budget for next year.
He also expressed concern that the country is unable to repay the debts in this situation marked by the absence of a government and the establishment of guidelines in the economic field.
Source: Tap News Agency