TUNIS —
Thousands of Tunisian opposition supporters demonstrated Sunday in the capital
against President
Kais Saied’s power grab and the economic crisis in the North
African country.
اضافة اعلان
“Poverty has
increased”, and “Famine is at our doorsteps”, they chanted as at least 2,000
people gathered in the city center.
Protesters held up
signs in English and French, reading “
Tunisia wake up” and “Tunisian state is
on the verge of collapse”.
Saied last July
sacked the government, suspended parliament and moved to rule by decree,
sparking fears for democracy in the birthplace of the 2011 Arab uprisings.
The latest
demonstration was called by the Free Destourian Party which is led by staunchly
anti-Islamist lawyer Abir Moussi.
“The government
today is incapable of finding solutions for the Tunisian people. ... If we
continue in silence, we will lose the country,” Moussi said in a speech during
the demonstration.
She branded
Tunisia’s current executive as “illegitimate” and called for legislative
elections to be brought forward from their scheduled date of December.
Bearing a portrait
of Moussi, protester Youssef Jabali told AFP: “Saied, the dictator, is shut off
in his palace and the people can’t find semolina, flour, oil or sugar.”
Already plunged in
economic crisis, Tunisia has in recent weeks seen a shortage of staple foods,
as the war in
Ukraine threatens to interrupt key supplies to various Arab
countries.
The authorities
have attributed the shortages to panic buying ahead of the holy month of
Ramadan, starting this year in April, when Muslims traditionally break a
dawn-to-dusk fast with lavish family meals.
Saied on Wednesday declared a “relentless war” on
food speculators and profiteers, accusing them of seeking to “strike at social
peace and security.”
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