Tunisia, 2021 — auto-coup

Event Summary

On 25 July 2021 President Kais Saied of Tunisia dismissed the government, suspended parliament, and assumed sweeping powers, in what was widely described as a self-coupi that unwound the country's decade old democracy, the only lasting one to emerge from the Arab Spring. Saied, elected in 2019 as a political independent, had been locked in a prolonged power struggle with Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and the parliament, dominated by the Islamist Ennahda party, amid a severe economic crisis and a catastrophic COVID-19 surge. After a day of mass protests against the government, Saied announced on television that he was dismissing Mechichi, freezing parliament for 30 days, and lifting the immunity of its members, and that he would rule with a new prime minister while also taking charge of the public prosecution.

He invoked Article 80 of the 2014 constitution, the emergency clause, but critics noted that article required parliament to remain in session and the prime minister and speaker to be consulted, and that the constitutional court that could have ruled on the move had never been formed. The military barricaded the parliament, blocking the speaker, Rached Ghannouchi, who called it a coup against the revolution. Many Tunisians initially celebrated.

Saied then extended the measures indefinitely, ruled by decree, dissolved parliament in 2022, and pushed through a new constitution greatly expanding presidential power.