In Tunisia, government crisis flares up amid protests over coronavirus restrictive measures

Tunisia has hit a government crisis amid protests over the introduction of restrictive measures on coronavirus. About it informs Reuters.

President Qays Said stripped Prime Minister Hisham al-Meshishi of his powers and froze work and defrauded the country’s parliament. The decision was made amid protests in the country related to the state of the Tunisian economy and the spread of the coronavirus.

“I made a decision that I should have made a few months ago: freezing all functions of the parliament. The country’s constitution does not allow dissolving parliament, but does not prohibit freezing its activities, ”the president said.

According to him, he will appoint a new prime minister, but for now he will act as head of government independently. The speaker of the Tunisian parliament, leader of the Islamist party “An-Nahda” Rashid Ghannushi said that he considers the president’s actions a coup directed “against the revolution and the constitution.”

On the eve, protests were held in several Tunisian cities, caused by the difficult economic situation amid the difficult situation with the spread of the coronavirus. The participants demanded to dissolve parliament and hold early elections, as well as to bring to justice those responsible for the worsening epidemiological situation in the country. In several cities, demonstrators also attacked the headquarters of the Islamist Al-Nahda Party.

Tunisia is now among the leaders in the world in terms of deaths from coronavirus. The president called the situation with the coronavirus in the country “catastrophic” and said that the army would take over the management of the crisis.