Hundreds of people protest in Tunisia against the president a week before the legislative

MADRID, 11 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Hundreds of Tunisians demonstrated on Saturday to demand "the return of the constitutional process", a protest called by the Salvation Front a few days after the holding of early legislative elections called by the president, Kais Saied, and which will be boycotted by the opposition.

The protest, which took place in the center of the capital, Tunis, ended without serious incidents, between chants demanding the removal of Saied from power, who in July 2021 arrogated all powers after dissolving the Government and suspending Parliament, dissolved months later.

According to information collected by the Tunisian state news agency, TAP, the participants in the protest denounced the deterioration of social and economic conditions and the political crisis in the country, while supporting the boycott of the legislative elections on December 17.

The president of the Salvation Front, Ahmed Neyib Chebi, stressed that the opposition coalition "is a force listened to in Tunisia and abroad" and argued that Saied "is isolated within his own country." Thus, he reiterated his commitment to the removal of the president from power and the creation of a government of salvation.

In this sense, Chebi explained in statements to the Tunisian station Mosaique FM that "the mission (of this government of salvation) would be to carry out economic, political and constitutional reforms that allow Tunisia to recover legitimacy through real elections".

For his part, the former Tunisian prime minister, Ali Laarayedh, a senior official of the Islamist Ennahda party, denounced that "Saied continues to repress freedoms to achieve an electoral farce through which to try to achieve additional legitimacy."

The opposition has already boycotted the constitutional referendum in July, which reinforced the powers of the president and removed weight from Parliament, part of a series of reforms promoted by Saied, criticized by the opposition for what they describe as an authoritarian drift.