Dopo quasi due anni e mezzo, la pandemia da SARS-CoV-2 continua a rappresentare un tema politico e sanitario, con alcuni Paesi che già da tempo trattano la circolazione del virus come un fenomeno endemico e altri che invece mantengono un livello di attenzione più elevato.
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On July 25th, exactly a year after President Kais Saïed’s power grab, Tunisians will take to the polls to vote in a referendum on a new constitution. The proposed national charter will likely expand the President’s powers, raising questions over the country’s future institutional architecture and checks and balances system.
When Kais Saïed was elected President of the Republic of Tunisia in 2019, he had just run his campaign on a programme of institutional reform aimed at solving, once and for all, the political crisis that the country is still going through.
Tunisia’s 2011-2021 decade can be summarised as follows: the introduction of democracy, the fall of a semi-socialist state, the deterioration of citizens’ economic conditions, the rise (and fall) of terrorism, and the Covid-19 pandemic. People, however, tend to forget about democracy and focus only on the negative aspects. As such, a new narrative is gaining ground: the crisis started in January 2011, when demonstrations against President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali intensified -and never ended.
Over the past decade, Tunisia has been known as the sole “Arab Spring” success story, considering its steady path towards democratisation. Regrettably, it has also been among the MENA countries most exposed to homegrown jihadist radicalisation and domestic terrorism.
Where is Tunisia heading, or, better yet, what is the outcome President Kais Saïed wishes to achieve with the founding of a so-called “new Republic”? Will the country grow into an innovative and reliable democracy or, instead, an autocracy disguised as a formally democratic regime? Saïed’s authoritarian measures over the past twelve months are not promising.
In the run-up to the referendum on July 25th in which Tunisians will be called upon to approve (or reject) President Kais Saïed’s top-down new constitutional draft, attacks against the leading members of the Muslim-oriented Ennahda party have intensified.
One of the most striking differences between Tunisia’s current transition back to autocracy and its difficult transition to an imperfect democracy between 2011 and 2014 is the role of the international community and the United States (US) in particular. The US and its Western allies, together with the European Union (EU), the United Nations, and the World Bank, supported the country’s transition to democracy.
The MED This Week newsletter provides expert analysis and informed insights on the most significant developments within the MENA region, bringing together unique opinions on the topic and reliable foresight on possible future scenarios. Today, we place the spotlight upon Joe Biden's first trip to the Middle East as the American head of State, specificly aimed at re-orienting the US’ engagement with its traditional key allies.