The President of the Tunisian Parliament refuses the extension of the freeze of his institution

TUNISIA. The response was a little late, but it is firm. After Kaïs Saïed's speech to the Nation on 13 December 2021, Rached Ghannouchi rejected, on Thursday 16 December 2021, the decision of the Tunisian Head of State to extend the freeze of the Parliament until December 2022.

Assuming all powers since the end of July 2021, despite the appointment in September 2021 of a head of government, the Tunisian president announced in his speech a suspension of Parliament until December 17, 2021 and the holding of early legislative elections. He also unveiled the opening, from January 2022 until 20 March 2022, of a digital platform to collect the proposals and constitutional provisions of Tunisians. The head of state plans to hold a referendum on constitutional reform on 25 July 2022.

Main leader of the Islamist party Ennahda and president of the Assembly of People's Representatives (ARP) since November 2019, Rached Ghannouchi demands "the immediate cancellation of exceptional measures." Via social networks, he "expresses his absolute refusal of the suspension of Parliament for an additional period of one year and considers this measure as unconstitutional and illegal." According to him, "any amendment to the Constitution must be done through constitutional procedures", as stated in the 2014 constitution.