and that he had not been given the opportunity, it was very angry. and then they immediately came up to him and i said please shut up, please shut up. then they put the handcuffs on him. those kind opposition lawyer, lawyer, was now living in canada. says he's trying to silence the voice of defending it. they are trying to eliminate all the facts, all your arguments that again a speech or that can be say in a position to do what the government is doing right now. that's why they are trying to month the lawyers out of the process. meanwhile, hundreds of cuban americans supporting the protesters in cuba, most the july 26 anniversary in front of the white house. but on the streets of cuba, capital demonstrations of any kind or conspicuously absent sea in human al jazeera. ah,

this is al jazeera and these are the headlines. she says he is president, has imposed a nationwide nighttime curfew for a month. and the army is on the streets, on sunday case, you dismiss the prime minister and put a freeze on parliaments. he sent me, she says he's willing to hand over responsibility to whomever the president chooses us. secretary of state anthony blanket has urged that you know the president to respect democracy in a phone call. he asked kyle said to maintain dialogue with all sides. heidi joe castro has more from washington dc. lincoln told side that he should adhere to the principles of democracy and human rights and said that open dialogue was needed between all political actors and the technician. people. lincoln follow that up with a tweet, saying that this was a good phone call and that he was able to express his support for to easy as

democracy. now the us has been hesitant to call this a coo white house spokeswoman said that a thorough legal analysis would 1st be required, but that if this is determined to be a qu, then you as a to, to need could be on the line. sol says the leaders of north and south korea have agreed to restore communication channels and improve relations. the agreement follows the exchange of several letters between south korean president to maintain a north korean. these are kim's own. the 1st person to face trial under hong kong, national security low as he found guilty of inciting succession and engaging and terrorism for me. and kids was prosecuted for writing his motorcycle. it's a group of police officers last year. well, those are the headlights, the stay with us on al jazeera inside story is next. from talk to al jazeera, we wrong, did you want the un to take and who stopped you?

we listen. you see the whole infrastructure and being totally destroyed. we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter. on our sierra. the birthplace of the, our spring is in crisis. noisiest president backed the prime minister and put a freeze on parliament the 30 days to biggest political parties calling it a qu. what triggered the turmoil and his democracy now at risk, this is inside story. ah, ah, hello there, i'm kim all santa maria, when a president dismisses the prime minister and effectively suspends parliament. well, it's a pretty messy political situation, so call it a qu,

whatever it is though to nuclear, is facing one of its biggest political crises since the, our spring, 10 years ago. people were already angry at the government handling of the pandemic, the poor economy, the high unemployment, they'd already been protesting for weeks. and then events took a dramatic turn on sunday when president clay said dismissed the prime minister. and the parliament for 30 days. soldiers blocked civil servants from entering government buildings. security forces in civilian clothes even stormed al jazeera bureau in tunis, and ordered journalists to leave. and after the biggest political party in parliament called it a coo, and urged its supporters to protest. i respect the decisions by present eyesight are not correct against the constitution and against reality. they bring us back to 1954. the scene of the parliament close by tanks is very disgraceful. while the president called his decisions, quote necessary to save to near the end of people. and i wouldn't you have to have

a sudden the 1st decision is to freeze all the powers of the parliament. the constitution does not allow the parliament to be dissolved, but it does not stand in the way of freezing all the word said. the 2nd decision is to lift the immunity of all members of parliament. and for those of whom a cases related says, i will take care over the public prosecution. but the fact parliamentary speaker, who is also a co founder of an after said the president acted above the law cut out. i mean, at least decisions have no basis in the constitution nor in the law, and we are against them because in short, it is against the constitution against the revolution and against public and private liberties in the country. the president meet misinterpretations that actually clashes with the reality about while

thousands of tennessee and celebrated the news on the streets of tunis and praised the president. oh oh, it's the 1st time in my life. i've heard the head of the state make a wide decision. we've taken our country back the 1st time we're out on the street to celebrate. you will often he had seen as he referred to as the success story of the spring, the one where democracy actually prevailed. but that success didn't come easily and it is now arguably at risk. rewind to january of 2011. that was when protested, toppled trinity a long time rule, levine, elaborate in been alley at the very beginning of the arab spring. later that year, the and the party won tennessee is 1st elections, but the country became sharply divided between the secular opposition and a government that wanted the country governed in line with islamic values in response to growing violence and unrest. a new constitution was a great that was 2 years later, 2014 by now, which split the power between the president and the prime minister. but in 2015,

a series of i fil a tax undermined tennessee is vital tourism sector. and even though the threat was eventually contain economy never really recovered by 2019 disillusion voters were rejecting the mainstream parties. and political outside of saved was elected president. parliament became increasingly fractured with parties, finding it difficult to form a government. now analysts say a rivalry is developed between the big 3 that is the president, the prime minister and the speaker, and it's preventing any effective action to deal with tentative economic problems. not to mention the pandemic. the sellers introduce you to today's panel, all of them into the, in the capital jonas's side. and they see as a member of the trinity in parliament, and an international spokesperson for the enough, the party in cairo on is method. danny, a human rights activist, a member of the executive bureau of euro med rights, and on skype,

from tune. it's funded rita, who's the editor in chief of michelle, a tennessee and news and analysis website. so thank you all for your time today on what has been a, a tumultuous day in your country side when they see, let me come to you. first of all, the i'm not going to say this is a qu because there are, well, that's not for me to say, you tell me, do you think it is? yes, i think the question is very clear here. it's a crew because from the moment you don't respect the constitution and you actually confiscate the powers into one single person who is at the same time be holding the executive. and there's a scenario powers all in the same time. and contrary to say, the constitution, i think we can only use one word. this is an attempt also to and this is not a personal opinion. it's

a bag which i've been back to the by all political full student id is. yeah. did you and the, and the party fear that something like this would happen, given all the unrest given all the, the protests that have been going on for months now? well, that's the fact that the situation soon is the whole digital prices, the economy situation. there's some, sorry, situation the pandemic and it's epic here, which is really, really concerning and this is not, you know, something which is which is new. we have been sending back since certain moments now, but we don't think that the answer to that is that to coffee powers into one single institution, the west funds to that is not to send the all me to the parliament, to the west funds to that is not to consider that the discharge of power is now behold by the one and only precedent off off the republic. what we say again is

this by the emergency of the situation going backwards in terms of democracy in terms of respecting institutions is not a solution, but we definitely need obviously to find out a clear yes pass to go out from this price is, but this is what have been sick during now, and i think i'm suggesting since month, i mean, we are one of the political forces who has been backing this last month. the initiative of one of the most important social organizations here, which is, which is the huge event to go through and national dialogue and with no congestion, with no, again anything so beaten in the national dialogue. so again, what is berry from signing is the coffee station of the public could not

be a solution to political prices. ok, well let's you mentioned this then for all 3 of you, i think we should just and i can't believe i'm saying this, let's consult between is in constitution article ac, which i've been looking at to day, which says among other things in the event of imminent danger threatening the nation's institutions, or the security or independence of the country. the president of the republic may take any measures necessitated by the exceptional circumstances. after the consultation with the head of government and the speaker, and informing the president of the constitutional court. so miss durham, danny will bring you into the conversation. now. he got part of that, right? i guess he thought of the situation as being that he needed to intervene, but then not any, did he not consults with anyone? he kind of fired them or frozen. that's right. i mean there is no see. that's it that they haven't brian and

the speaker, i doubt that they'll be out to the bottom about the work and nobody we don't know what the price is. i believe what they call, who are now an exaggerated reading and means that they can all the you know, we have to read over and then also makes efforts away. i mean, they do. that's going to be great negro duration to make it better. oh, in 10 years will be great that are many problems. all the

different governments have done have done almost nothing to approve of the search, which was the main goal. and also how many times when i got this problem on the media and it will not go through monetize either which my prime minister, but also going to be expert. so i can be wrong, but i keep wrote that everybody would be winding up in order to get things to get back in. and

now it really needs to go up the in your with go that way and would happen. you know, knowing that you have said that there is and protected they had to go to the government to be in such a way. and it was really, i think it's some dying with that interest killed by that which i would not like do i can. so do, let me bring you and we've got a, we've got a problem here with something had to be done. it seems. and actually we should note, and we've seen the pictures of people celebrating the president's decision on the street. the way he went to balance it is questionable at best bots may be, and i'm just playing devil's advocate here. maybe he was acting in the interests of the country. sure, that's clearly what

a lot of people who are celebrating seem to think, you know, the question of whether or not that's certainly a question for debo scholars and it is being played out in, in, in debate currently in denisia. it could be a question for political scientists is certainly one that the conan took, the president and the opponents of his concentration of our will will make. but i'm more curious to understand why it is that the decision that he made brought out such a celebration in the street and why it was that he made a decision at this current moment. and perhaps what the reactions will be going forward. you know, there were, there was not only the health crisis, i mean as being one of the worst that rates in the world's population in the recent weeks. but you also saw that the prime minister, you know, he would just last weekend at a hotel resort, a luxury resort with his ministers and an anti corruption watch die published this . you know, the president of that watchdog, his facebook account was temporarily restricted at the same time. you also so

images of the prime minister playing tennis again at the moment when we seeing images of people in hospitals without oxygen, without an oxygen, people, and had to clinics and hospitals crying about their inability to, to actually take care of their patients. we've been hospitalized overflowing, sometimes corpses being lied up in the hallways, the hospital. so all of this really did feed into massive anger and really anger at the incompetent or unwillingness of this government to respond to people's basic needs that a health level. but also on an economic level, we've seen the government raising prices of basic consumer goods, reducing subsidies, as it's been talked with the enough to get a new loan. they've, you've seen the price of the several goods increasing at a time when people, the value, you know, had gone down in the last 2 years, or people are also economically separate. bring. and as part of the corporate response, they've been prevented from going out of their houses or have had a limited ability to, to, to economic activity at the same time. so quite quite

a punishing response that we've seen from the government all feeding into the anger that we saw before. i died announcement yesterday. okay, well you over the lot points there. 5 bill i think we'd been outside for a response there. i mean, i know you, we haven't got the time to go through all of those individually, but you can't deny that there have been people out on the street celebrating the fact that this government is full and that your party, the government led by your party. how do you respond to all of that? i think, yeah, i mean, there is no point. it's to deny that we are facing a ship and, and benjamin's crisis engine is yeah, and this is back to the thought that again, not weeks ago, but to months ago, we all in a country where do regarding the functioning with the service of the members of the government because each to all the 3rd of the mental team which has been appointed by the parliament and booked by the bottom and has been refused

to take office by the president of the republic i side. so yes, definitely very crisis of burger and it's an economy crisis which has been definite and i would baited by by the pens of h. and this is something that we can't deny. i mean there is no point to defend the prime minister or head of vitamins and to say that to get right of him much, we should actually do a constitutional cool. so we something in the middle, and in the middle there is a national dialogue, a political dialogue, which should be dawn with people white people sitting around the table and not be deploying the army in the part of it, because this is what's happening now. what we have is i put this tension and i say it again of the powers and base. and very,

i'm not saying that this methodology is the right one to go out from the crisis in rather a wage to again make this a necessary confidence and trust between the different political stakeholders, incentives, yami about, you know, being less and less here. so what is urgent for us? the images she now is have democracy back. and i'm not saying that just concern of someone from the political class or the elite. i do consider that if we don't solve our problem democratic process, which could include actually new elections and anticipated elections at the parliamentary battles of the present presidential, sorry, levels. and this is very about and because we don't yes, sorry you talk about no i just so i just want to make sure we hear from our other

guests as well. you talk about a democratic person, miss. i don't, danny can't be one at the moment. can their parliament is frozen for 30 days and they can be no democratic process. let's say the 30 days pass parliament is done for president then was it depends on what the president has been mind. in so few days i knew things would be another way when visually with the old political fighting. you know, there is a problem that, that everybody should be well, which is the fact that we need to go very, very harsh. so sure. that didn't year now we, we really read comic i mean in now and i

don't think we can really for the coming days and are not the thing because you always directories that quite often in the situations. the 1st thing people say is all we need fresh elections? that's not always the answer is it. and in fact with, with the way that to new, the in politics and society seems to be so splintered that could actually end up solving nothing. notice that it worked, and i mean it might work for this very special, which i didn't know really cry out in 2011. and i mean has been done. what had been done is really far wrong, very important. the mental and that's why people,

why people and this week, but not really. and the mother is it possible also? i mean this division in the you see the will see you on the board or because the thing to take ok, we have to look and we really, we like to say for everybody. everybody was in english with money and people were proud of that. you need that, that is really for the rest of this is justin social justice. so now how old that whatever the

person is really harming what, what was, what happen and also to those, you know, what we're asking you to do and like who are expecting things to be best and we are let's, let's bring 5 back in. so i love to get to talk about issues like connections. there's been the revolution. there was the constitution in 2014. this is all actually only happened over 10 years, hasn't. it's, we gotta remember, it's still a really young democracy here, and there's still plenty of work to do. what would you say is being the next step? well, i mean, these sort of institutions that were created after the 2011 revolution. i mean, these are institutions that in many ways are, you know, they're following

a framework up a liberal democracy that aren't, you know, in the words, if one protest. so these are, these are a 300 year old old institution. these are tools going to be 100 years ago, but people who went on the street in 2011 had created something completely new with the revolution and were expecting something new. and they were not necessarily calling or a new constitution or a new parliament. when you're looking at the democratic, legitimate, the parliament. okay, so they are elected, but you will look at the current president. he received almost as many both as all members of the problem is the last 2019 election, which also get a level of missy when the people can. i just knew about him before i just quickly because if they, if i may, if you actually ask people is the parliament in the last few years, are they responding to the needs of the people? are they debating and responding to the needs of whatever sector it is, whether or not meekly environment of labor issues, agriculture issues,

are they responding to the needs of the people they would say no, this is not necessarily democratic institution. just part of the reason why we, you know, lower and lower turn out for every election, especially the parliamentary level in the last few years. can you tell me quickly about president site, i think is an interesting character. i've read reports about people feel, you know, he can be quite awkward and he's very, very formal and he speaks classic arabic and things like this. i mean, he seems an interesting character for a young democracy. we were following the election campaign. it was something that we were to grappling with, trying to figure out who this outsider was in some, in many ways it was quite confusing because we didn't have a traditional media campaign. it may have been even just networks. a former student had taught for many years as a constitutional law professor at the law faculty. and many of the students were actually very happy about his candidacy, who had quite a lot of faith in him. you know, as i also have now started,

because people at that time were quite fed up with traditional politician. i mean, when you saw the run off for the election, where the president was between him and a business man who has style and stuff isn't outside, i wouldn't say, you know, started, but he's certainly styles himself at no site or this is kind of the kind of person who immediately appealed to people even without a very strong media campaign or traditional election campaign, right. we're just running out of time now for the i just want to final word from you about well, what we do in the immediate future here given that the president seems to suspended all the different parts of power, the parliament and the speaker, and the constitutional court and all these things, would you welcome mediation assistance, arab league, another country or something like that? yeah, just a very, very, very good comment on, on what i've just heard about a president. i says, i mean deeper should not also forget about the fact that in all, all political parties has been company very hard for them to get on the to win

the 2nd turn of the election. hey, is i think one of the best presentation of a failure from political parties, this last and 9 to 10 years to be able to adopt to the moving of the situation introduced to the transformation of the society to the needs as well . all very demanding and conscious society and, and population. what, what of the next step for? it's very, it's very easy. we demand that the parliament reopen as a member of the parliament. i was denied access to the building today by the army. and this is something which is very dangerous and which is definitely not in the course, but you should, i would love to hear people who are defending digital to democracy and the democratic transition into the just talk about what the, what is the role of the army today,

what is doing the on the inside the parliamentary building, the 1st thing. secondly, we are asking for a national exactly as we've been doing this last month. and we think definitely about the day at that all the social organization, national organization and they should play a role or i see the station obviously if there is a need for the bait to change the political which you mention is that let's do it. the reason it's a debate to change the electoral system in geneva that's doing it as well. but also i think that we should agree on the necessity of anticipated elections. so either an ac massage run down the and the other day. so thank you so much for your time today and your expertise. we really do appreciate it and thank you for watching. there is always more for you on line. first off, it's out there were dot com we, you can see this in any of our previous editions. of the show in facebook dot com forward slash a inside story, plenty of discussion there as well as on twitter at a inside story for the show and come on

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