Speaking to Tunisie Numérique, Constitutional law expert Salsabil Klibi affirmed that the notion of “armed forces” in the constitution should be interpreted as “the national army”. Hence, Kais Saied is not the Head of all “military and security” armed forces as he asserted on December 31, 2020.
The spirit of the constitution
This understanding arises from the spirit of the constitution, according to Mrs Klibi who attributed diverse examples in this sense, notably article 17 which speaks of “armed forces and internal security forces” as two separate entities.
She furthermore emphasised that article 18 of the constitution correlates to “the national army”, while article 19 relates to “national security”, which confirms that in the mind of the constituent it is a question of two distinct bodies.
The parallelism of forms
Our speaker evoked that as a rule all members of the cabinet are appointed and dismissed by the Head of Government. Nevertheless, when it comes to the Ministers of National Defense and Foreign Affairs, the latter can only carry out such acts after discussion with the President of the Republic.
If the President of the Republic were the Supreme Head of the armed security forces, he would have had the same prerogatives that the constitution awards him in terms of the appointment and removal of the Minister of Defense, she added.
The National Security Council
According to Salsabil Kbili, although the President of the Republic is the Head of the National Security Council, this does not in any way imply that he is the supervisory authority for each of its members since this council does not meets only in exceptional circumstances.
She also acknowledged that the drafting of certain articles of the constitution could lead to mixing, indicating that even the military armed forces do not befall exclusively under the competence of the President of the Republic.
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