Since the 2011 revolutions, Tunisia has been seen as the most successful democracy in the Arab world. But at the moment it tethering at the edge of what some people call have called a constitutional coup.
Here is what happened, on July 25th, after a day of protest over the government’s handling of the covid-19 pandemic and the economy, Tunisian President Kais Saied invoked an emergency act, dismissed the Prime Minister. He suspended the Parliament the next day for at least a month and took charge of the executive powers.
One of the major contributing factors to this crisis has been the pandemic, according to Reuters. So far, around 940,000 people have been fully vaccinated among a population of 11.6 million. Tunisia has reported around 18,000 deaths and more than half a million infections. At one point last month it had the worst infection rate in Africa.
Khalil Bendib spoke with Tunisian researcher Mohamed Hammami about the pandemic and the political and economic crisis in Tunisia.