5 (EUROPA PRESS)
The opposition National Salvation Front has demonstrated this Sunday in the center of Tunisia in protest against the authoritarian drift of the country’s president, Kais Saied, despite the fact that the concentration had been illegalized by the authorities last Friday.
The “frontists”, led by the Islamist party Ennahda, have begun their march in the Republic Square, reports the Tunisie Numerique portal, among slogans against “political arrests and violations of individual and collective liberties”.
The Police had erected a barrier to prevent passage to the emblematic Bourguiba avenue, the most important in the capital and the usual scene of demonstrations, but the protesters have overwhelmed the agents and have marched down this street, reports the Mosaique FM radio station.
The leader of the National Salvation Front, Ahmed Nayib al Shabi, has announced in his speech before the attendees in front of the Municipal Theater that they will call protest rallies with the detainees every Wednesday from now on.
Al Shabi has also announced that several “national personalities” have joined the Front and has denounced the “indiscriminate” arrests of politicians, trade unionists and civil society activists by the security forces.
After the demonstration materialized, the Ministry of the Interior has warned in a statement that it has informed the Prosecutor’s Office of everything that happened, but has explained that it has provided security services to the protest despite not being authorized.
Thousands of people have already marched on Saturday at the request of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT). In that past march through the center of the Tunisian capital, banners were displayed with slogans such as “No to the one-person government” or “Let’s stop the attacks against the union” and slogans such as “Saiy, coward, the union is not afraid” or “Freedom! End of the police state.”
In recent days, it should be noted, three senior officials of the National Salvation Front –Chaima Isa, Rida Belhaj and Yauar Ben Mbarek– have been arrested in connection with a “conspiracy” case, branded as politically motivated by the opposition.
Within the framework of this wave of arrests, Habib Eluze, a senior official from Ennahda, was arrested on Thursday afternoon, according to his lawyer Samir Dilu, who has indicated that the reasons for the arrest have not been clarified.
