The British Financial Times criticized (Financial Times) sharply stated Tunisian President Kais Saied and said that he is leading the country in a dangerous path, and called on him to respect democracy and focus on the country’s economic problems, and demanded the international community to use its influence to pressure Saied to curb his authoritarian tendencies.
She said in editorial Her human rights abuses with military trials of civilians, arrests of opposition lawmakers and other critics of the Said government, beatings with batons and hoses on peaceful protesters are taking place in Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring which, until recently, was hailed as the only country capable of transitioning from dictatorship to democracy. After the popular uprisings that swept the Middle East in 2011.
She added that these violations are just some of the many worrying signs that Tunisia is in danger of returning to the tyranny against which millions of Tunisians bravely rose up a decade ago, and blamed these violations on President Kais personally.
She went on to say that Said is planning to hold a referendum on the constitution, and is suspected of wanting to consolidate his powers by returning the country to an executive presidency, similar to that enjoyed by Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the ousted dictator in 2011. revolution.
rude takeover
She asserted that Saïd had failed to achieve the one thing his people urgently expected: a viable economic plan to deal with the long-term grievances of Tunisians suffering from high unemployment and deteriorating living standards, noting that the demand for improved living standards was the reason Saïd enjoyed popular support for his brazen takeover. For power, many became disillusioned with the existing political parties and the weak and squabbling coalitions that characterized the post-revolution years and led to 10 governments in the country in a decade.
She explained that Tunisia is already burdened with dangerously high debts and is one of the Arab countries most vulnerable to food price inflation and high oil prices. Rather than laying out a vision for tackling the country’s ills, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, Saeed chose to blame corruption and its critics.
Its popularity is eroding quickly
The British newspaper said that the longer the economic problems persist, the faster Said’s popularity erodes, and the greater the risk that Tunisians will be disappointed again, stressing that a return to a dictatorship modeled on the Ben Ali dictatorship without checks and balances will only exacerbate matters.
The FT concluded its editorial by saying that the international community should use its influence to pressure Saeed to curb his authoritarian tendencies, warning that if he continues unchecked, there is a real danger that what remains of a functioning democracy in the Arab world will be written down in history.