Zunehmender Autoritarismus in Tunesien und das Schweigen der EU

Tunesien verwandelt sich gerade in eine autokratische Präsidialherrschaft, die gestützt auf Saudi Arabien und die Arabischen Emirate die demokratischen Errungenschaften des letzten Jahrzehnts versucht rückgängig zu machen. Derweil schweigt die EU. Kritik kommt nur aus den USA und ausgerechnet der Türkei:

Last week, Tunisian President Kais Saied moved to dissolve parliament after it voted to repeal his decision to freeze democratic institutions and rule by decree. Since then, MPs have been interrogated, and justice minister Leila Jeffal has requested the public prosecutor initiate arrest proceedings against the lawmakers who participated in the session, accusing them of “forming a criminal association” to “endanger the state and cause chaos on the Tunisian territory”.

The potential charges under the anti-terrorism act carry a sentence between 20 years in jail and the death penalty. A number of MPs are being harassed, particularly those who participated in the session and their families.

Yet despite Tunisia’s slide towards autocracy, Gaaloul, a former minister from the Ennahda party and current advisor to Speaker Rachid Ghannouchi, believes that President Saied’s position is increasingly weak.

“I think that Kais Saied will not have time to build a dictatorship because he doesn’t have the tools to do so. For democracy to be successful it needs political and economic stability. A dictatorship needs the same thing. It needs stable governance and economic resources,” he said.

“What we fear is the scenario that is worse than a dictatorship: total chaos. That he is not able to govern, no political buffer, and total despair from the population.”

Nonetheless, opposition groups have been disappointed by the lack of support for democracy and condemnation of President Saied’s actions from the EU institutions.

While the United States has announced that future financial support for Tunisia will be conditional on the restoration of democratic institutions, and Turkey’s President Recep Erdoğan has described the dissolution of parliament as “a blow against the people”, the EU has been silent.