Islamist Ennahda party leader Rached Ghannouchi
National Salvation Front, Tunisia’s main opposition coalition on Wednesday slammed a string of arrests mainly targeting critics of President Kais Saied, on Wednesday (Feb. 15).
The summons to the Police Headquarters has yet to be explained. The questioning was one of a series of government-opposition tensions. Prime Minister Kais Saied’s government has overseen the arrest of media, judicial, and business leaders, as well as politicians. The net effect of the crackdown on critics has been to spur unity talks between previously antagonistic opposition groups such as the umbrella union group UTTG and Islamist parties.
With tense economic and fiscal restraints, the government has less to spend on public demands.
One analyst warns of the fragility of the novel political edifice that PM Saied has designed to insulate his authority – a form of corporatism designed to keep apart factions by offering them bits of political turf to solidly the positions of current leaders. The new legislature is complicated and nostalgia embues the abolished parliament.
It is reported that in the local media, questions arise as to whether or not the 2011 “Yellow Spring” has finished running its course.