Kais Saied

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His Excellency Kais Saied
قيس سعيد
Saied in 2019
7th President of Tunisia
Incumbent
Assumed office 23 October 2019
Prime Minister	Youssef Chahed Elyes Fakhfakh[1] Hichem Mechichi
Preceded by	Beji Caid Essebsi Mohamed Ennaceur (acting)
Personal details
Born	(1958-02-22) 22 February 1958 (age 63) Tunis, Tunisia[2]
Nationality	Tunisian
Political party	Independent
Spouse(s)	Ichraf Chebil
Children	3
Alma mater	University of Tunis International Institute of Humanitarian Law
Profession	Jurist, lecturer
Signature

Kais Saied (Arabic: قَيس سعيّد‎; born 22 February 1958) is a Tunisian politician, jurist and a retired university professor of constitutional law serving as the President of Tunisia since October 2019. He was president of the Tunisian Association of Constitutional Law from 1995 to 2019. An independent candidate in the 2019 presidential election, he defeated Nabil Karoui in the second round of voting.

Early life[]

Kais Saied is the son of Moncef Saied and Zakia Bellagha from Béni Khiar (Cap Bon). According to Saied, his late father protected the young Gisèle Halimi from the Nazis.^[3] His mother, although educated, is a housewife.^[4] His family is of rather modest origin, but intellectual and a member of the middle class. His paternal uncle, Hicham Saïed, was the first pediatric surgeon in Tunisia, known worldwide for having separated two conjoined twins in the 1970s.^[5] Kaïs Saïed completed his secondary studies at Sadiki College.^[4]

Professional career[]

Saied in 2013

A jurist by formation, he is a specialist in constitutional law, and secretary-general of the Tunisian Association of Constitutional Law between 1990 and 1995 then vice-president of the association since 1995.

Director of the public law department at the University of Sousse between 1994 and 1999, then at the Faculty of Juridical, Political and Social Sciences of Tunis of the University of Carthage from 1999 to 2018, he was a member of the group of experts of the General Secretariat of the Arab League between 1989 and 1990, expert at the Arab Institute for Human Rights from 1993 to 1995 and member of the committee of experts responsible for revising the draft Tunisian Constitution in 2014.^[6] He was also a member of the scientific council of several commissions academics.

While a visiting professor at several Arab universities, in 2013 he refused to be part of the commission of experts whose mission was to find a legal solution to the problem of the Independent High Authority for Elections. He retired in 2018.^[7]

Political career[]

Political ascent[]

From 2013 to 2014, Kais Saied participated in several political clubs and meetings, which bring together young people.

In 2016, the Mouassissoun movement was created to support Saied's action and projects.^{[citation needed]}

2019 presidential campaign[]

Saied during the 2019 presidential campaign

Saied was one of the first declared candidates in the 2019 Tunisian presidential election.^[8] Running as an Independent social conservative, he has sought to appeal to younger voters.^[9] One of his policies included support for allowing citizens to recall their elected officials.^[10][11] Saied suggested to voters that many of Tunisia's current issues were due to "non-respect for many constitutional laws".^[9] He presented a plan to combat corruption, whether it is "moral or financial".^[9] Saied was supported by both Islamists and leftists.^[12]

In a June 2019 interview with the newspaper Acharaâ Al Magharibi, Saied announced his support for the death penalty. He also made statements that homosexuality, or rather its public expression, is financed and encouraged by foreign countries, telling the paper:

I was told certain houses were rented by foreign parties... homosexuality has existed throughout history, but certain people want to spread homosexuality.^[13]

He has taken conservative positions on women's issues as well, coming out against gender equality in inheritance issues, in accordance with the interpretation of religious law.^[14]

Kais Saied is against normalisation of relations with Israel, saying that Israel is at war with the Muslim world and any Muslim leader who normalizes his or her country's relationship with the Zionists should be tried for treason. He said his country has no problem with Jews and that Tunisians including his father protected Jews during the Second World War.^[15][16]

Saied has also stated that he is in favor of a decentralised, three-tier, indirect manner of electing national legislative representatives, some elements of direct democracy, and believes that local representatives should be elected based on character and its underlying structure rather than political ideology. Due to his relative obscurity and lack of campaigning, several of his positions were not well-defined aside from his social conservatism.^[12] Despite being supported by Ennahdha in the election and holding socially conservative positions, Saied did not describe himself as an Islamist, and had advisers from across the political spectrum.^[17] He also is not in favor of adding religious elements to the constitution, stating that these were only his personal beliefs.

Several media sources^[9][14][18] referred to Saied as "RoboCop", given his monotonous voice, his use of Standard Arabic rather than Tunisian dialect, and his focus on law and order issues. On the campaign trail, Saied portrayed himself as a man of the people, somewhat similarly to Nabil Karoui, another populist candidate.

Saied received 620,711 votes in the first round of the 2019 Tunisian presidential election, coming in first place, and moved on to face Karoui in the second round. He was announced on 14 October as the new President of Tunisia, winning the second round, receiving 2,777,931 votes equivalent to 72.71% of the vote.^[12][19] He took office nine days later, becoming only the second president who was not an heir to the legacy of the country's founding president, Habib Bourguiba.

The prime minister then had two months to create a coalition.^[12]

President of Tunisia[]

Saied was sworn in as Tunisia's president on 23 October 2019.^[20][21] He is the first president born after the country gained independence from France in 1956.

Transition and investiture[]

Saied on his arrival as President at the Palace of Carthage in October 2019

The results of the presidential election were proclaimed identically by the Independent High Authority for Elections on 17 October. On the same day, Kaïs Saïed chose his brother Naoufel, also a professor of constitutional law, to appoint the advisers and members of the presidential cabinet. The office of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People met on 18 October and fixed the oath on 23 October. This date corresponds to the maximum duration of the presidential interim of 90 days.

On October 23, at the Presidential Palace of Carthage, after taking his oath before the outgoing Assembly, during which he promises to fight against terrorism and its causes, as well as to guarantee the gains of Tunisian women, while strengthening his economic and social rights, he sees the interim president, Mohamed Ennaceur, transferring presidential powers to him.

First steps[]

From a practical point of view, he refused to stay at the presidential palace of Carthage, preferring his villa in Mnihla, located in the governorate of Ariana.

On October 30, he appointed diplomat Tarek Bettaïeb as head of the presidential cabinet, General Mohamed Salah Hamdi as national security adviser, while Tarek Hannachi heads the protocol. Abderraouf Bettaïeb is Minister-Advisor to the President of the Republic, Rachida Ennaifer in charge of communication, while Nadia Akacha is responsible for legal affairs.

Government formation[]

The government being semi-presidential, Kais Saied had a week after his inauguration to instruct the party which took the lead in the legislative elections to form a government. The latter then has a month to obtain the confidence of the Assembly of People's Representatives. On 15 November 2019, he appointed Habib Jemli, the candidate for Ennahdha, to the post of head of government and charged him with forming a cabinet. On 10 January 2020, the Assembly rejected the composition of the government, which was also subject to delays when it was announced. Saied therefore had ten days to appoint a new head of government. On 20 January 2020, he appointed Elyes Fakhfakh.

His government was announced on 15 February, but Ennahdha, whose ministers were announced there, announced that he would not vote for confidence because of the non-participation of Heart of Tunisia. A slightly modified version of the government, but without the participation of Heart of Tunisia, was announced on 19 February; Ennahdha, fearing a dissolution, voted to accept the government. On 27 February, the Assembly of People's Representatives granted confidence to the government.

In June 2020, according to Al Jazeera, "an independent member of Parliament published documents indicating that Fakhfakh owned shares in companies that won deals worth 44 million dinars". Fakhfakh denied any wrongdoing. On 15 July 2020, he resigned.^[22] On July 25, 2020, Saïed appointed Hichem Mechichi head of government, with the task of forming a government in one month and obtaining the confidence of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People.^[23] Later on, he assumed office on 2 September 2020.^[24]

Suspension of Parliament on 25 July 2021[]

On 25 July 2021 in light of violent demonstrations against the government demanding the improvement of basic services and amid a growing COVID-19 outbreak, Saied suspended parliament for thirty days and relieved the prime minister Hichem Mechichi from his duties,^[25][26] waiving the immunity of the parliament members and ordering the military to close the parliament house. Saied's actions, which included relieving the prime minister of his duties, assuming the executive authority, suspending the Parliament and closing the offices of some foreign news agencies, appeared to have been clear signs of a coup, as they disregard Article 80 of the Tunisian constitution which states that before raising an emergency state, the president must consult his prime minister and the head of the Parliament, and even then the Parliament cannot be suspended.^[27] There is currently no constitutional court in Tunisia to offer jurisdiction in his interpretation of the constitution.^[28] On 24 August, Saied extended the suspension of parliament although the constitution states the parliament can only be suspended for a month, raising concerns in some quarters about the future of democracy in the country. ^[29]

Personal life[]

Kais Saied is married to the judge Ichraf Chebil, whom he met when she was a law student in Sousse. He is the father of three children (two daughters and a son: Sarah, Mouna and Amrou).^[30]

Honours[]

National Honours[]

•  Tunisia:

He is Grand Master of Tunisians Honorary Orders in his quality of president of the Tunisian Republic.

• Collar of the Order of Independence (automatic upon taking presidential office)
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Republic (automatic upon taking presidential office)
• Grand Cordon of the (automatic upon taking presidential office)

Foreign Honors[]

•  Algeria : Collar (Athir Class) of the National Order of Merit (2 February 2020)^[31]

Honorary degrees[]

• 2021 : Sapienza University of Rome^[32]

Publications[]

Saied is the author of a number of works on constitutional law, including:

• (in Arabic) Tunisian Political Texts and Documents (نصوص ووثائق سياسية تونسية) [with Abdelfattah Amor], published by the Center of Administrative, Political, and Social Studies and Research, Tunis, 1987
• (in French) General Provisions of the Constitution (Dispositions générales de la constitution) [direction], pub. Faculty of Juridical, Political, and Social Sciences of Tunis, Tunis, 2010

Miscellaneous[]

After assuming the presidency, Kais Saied garnered significant media attention for his handwritten official letters in fine Maghrebi script.^[33][34]

Notes and references[]

External links[]

• Camille Lafrance (19 April 2019). "Présidentielle en Tunisie : dix choses à savoir sur Kaïs Saïed, deuxième dans les sondages". jeuneafrique.com (in French). Retrieved 24 June 2019.
• Media related to Kais Saied at Wikimedia Commons