Tunisian presidential supporters call for prosecuting opposition

Tunis, May 8 (EFE).- Hundreds of people took to the streets of Tunis on Sunday in a show of support for president Kais Saied and to call for the political leaders who held positions during the 10-year transition period to be prosecuted.

The protesters gathered in front of Tunis’ municipal theater holding national flags and photographs of Rached Ghannouchi, the Islamist leader of the Ennahda Movement, with his face crossed out.

The rally was in support of Saied’s roadmap. After dissolving Parliament and creating a committee to draft a new Constitution, the president has called a referendum on July 25 and legislative elections in December.

On Thursday, the Tunisian opposition claimed that Saied planned to order the dissolution of all political parties on Sunday as well as the arrest and house arrest of some of their figures.

The pro-Saied protesters on Sunday supported the hypothetical steps at the same venue where another protest denounced the “drastic” regression in press freedom since Saied decreed the state of exception on 25 July.

Back then, Saied deposed the government and assumed full powers … amid accusations of a coup d’état by the opposition — to “rectify”, the transition that began in 2011 after the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s overthrow. EFE

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