Union for Tunisia bloc, which is comprised of five parties, including the Social Democratic Path Party, is one of the most prominent anti-government political parties. Differences have been further exacerbated in the aftermath of the National Constituent Assembly’s announcement that drafting Tunisia’s next Constitution has been finalized.

Union for Tunisia bloc, which is comprised of five parties, including the Social Democratic Path Party, is one of the most prominent anti-government political parties. Differences have been further exacerbated in the aftermath of the National Constituent Assembly’s announcement that drafting Tunisia’s next Constitution has been finalized.

Samir Bettaieb, leader of the Union for Tunisia bloc and Official Spokesperson of the Social Democratic Path, who sharply criticized the Constituent Assembly leadership and the Ennahda party in particular, talks about the upcoming elections, the Constitution’s slow and flawed  drafting and receiving death threats.

Mr. Bettaieb, national dialogue held this past spring ended with a political consensus but those agreements were soon reversed in the final drafting of the Constitution. Is this considered a failure of the dialogue?

We should not forget that the national dialogue held at Carthage Palace and the second round of the General Union of Tunisian Workers’ initiative calling for dialogue, which then led to creating a follow-up committee, still looks forward to reconciling opinions and reaching a consensus on controversial issues.

The announcement made about finalizing the drafting of the Constitution and its submission as a final project, while it is in fact no more than a fourth draft, is regarded as a precipitated action by some people. The draft Constitution has obviously introduced improvements, compared to the previous one, but it is still beyond what is really required. The draft still has several deficiencies and faults such as the unclear definition of the nature of the state, whether civil or Islamic, especially that Chapter 141 tips in favor of the interpretation introduced by Ennahda, considering Islam the religion of the state and this reveals a tendency towards declaring Tunisia an Islamic state.

What, in your opinion, are the means to overcoming these violations?

This bill will not pass to the plenary actions and will not be presented for  debate and voting before reaching a consensus on the contentious points. A Constitution dominated by views projected by the general rapporteur (Ennahda) who also interfered into the committees’ works will not be allowed to pass.

Twenty three Constituent Assembly members filed a case regarding this issue to the Administrative Court demanding it to look into the committed violations. We will move in all directions.

We also call on the Tunisian people to mobilize in defense of their Constitution. This is a call for action and protest to save the country’s Constitution in its final hour.

But what you described as ‘fourth draft’ was declared on June 1 by the head of the Constituent Assembly Mustafa Ben Jafar as the ‘final’ draft of the Constitution.

Mustafa Ben Jafar violated the law and ignored the internal procedure of the Constituent Assembly, which stipulates that the constituent committees must review the draft submitted by the drafting and coordinating commission. But, instead of respecting the legal text, he declared that the draft Constitution is finalized. We do not know how he came up with this conclusion as draft Constitutions are not deemed final, the Constitution is.

Mustafa Ben Jafar wanted to imitate Habib Bourguiba, the first president of the Republic who declared Tunisia’s first Constitution on June 1, 1959, and there is a great difference between the two where Ben Jafar chose June 1 to declare the completion of a contested Constitution.

Among the contentious points is that of freedom of conscience. Will you make some concessions and look for a reconciliatory solution with Ennahda to avoid the crisis?

During dialogues and constituent committees’ works, we advocated the necessity for incorporating the principle of freedom of conscience and faith, these being two interrelated rights. We also called for allocating a chapter for each of them.

However, the Constituent Committee decided to draft the two rights in a single text which we deemed ‘floating’ of these rights. In addition, there were no provisions on the principle of neutrality of houses of worship and educational institutions in regard to party activities despite being demanded. Leaving the door open for political action in mosques and institutes will allow certain organizations to promote notions and ideologies alien to the Tunisian society and exploit the youth who will consequently fall prey to these misleading concepts.

You refer to the results of the national dialogue as “a package of mandatory consensuses” that should be implemented or rejected as a whole?

We are defending principles and are not in a position to make compromises about them. We may compromise controversial issues that are not substantive or could affect the revolution’s principles of freedom, dignity and democracy.

Today we are before one option which is to commit to all consensuses achieved by the national dialogue and those to be fulfilled in the days ahead.

How would you explain that the Republican Party, your ally at the Union for Tunisia, adopted different positions from yours?

That is not true. The Republican Party openly adopts the attitudes of the Union for Tunisia. We have signed a joint statement in which we have identified our position against the submitted draft Constitution. They are primarily concerned with Chapter 141 and the second clause of Section 30, which restricts freedoms especially with respect to the transitory regulations on extension of Constituent Assembly’s administration.

But the Republican Party’s positions are closer to those of Ennahda’s than they are to yours. It even described the rejection of the current draft as being exaggerated.

The Republican Party adopts the Union’s positions. It expressed that attitude through signing the joint statement. It also expressed its rejection of the draft Constitution in a different way based on its own political interpretation.

After the political tremors you have experienced, is the Union for Tunisia a political front or is it a mere transient electoral alliance?

Since its inception, the Union for Tunisia is an electoral political alliance. We have mentioned that in our founding statement. We have also consistently coordinated our efforts in political stances in addition to holding regular meetings comprising the five parties’ secretary generals and establishing pertinent structures.

It was presumed that the past meetings should be dedicated to discussing the elections file, but owing to ensuing developments, we dedicated those meetings to discussing issues concerned with the Constitution.

Leader of Call for Tunisia party Beji Caid Essebsi stated that he intends to run in the next presidential elections. Will the Path Party support his candidacy, or do you, perhaps, intend to support Najib Chebbi, the Union  member and representative of the Republican Party?

We will support the Social Democratic Path party’s candidate. We consider that any political party or any citizen has the right to declare candidacy for the presidential elections. As far as the Union for Tunisia is concerned, it will present its candidate who satisfies the required conditions.

What are these conditions?

The candidate must have the ability to express the Union for Tunisia’s positions and project these positions to the public. He must also enjoy consensus by the Union’s components and his name must be included in the opinion poll.

There are several dates proposed for the next elections, but they all seem to agree that they have to be held this year. Do you think this is possible given the stumbling circumstances?

It will not be possible to hold elections this year, not even in the first three months of next year. Until now, proper conditions are not yet suitable to hold them. The Constituent Assembly is still considering the events of the Independent High Commission for elections, which needs at least eight months to be completed, especially since we have wasted the works carried out by the previous commission that supervised the 2011 elections.

Is there a target date for finishing the works of the Constituent Assembly, or perhaps some seek to ‘perpetuate the transitional situation’?

We hope the Constituent Assembly’s work will finish by this year’s end, but what we observe in this draft is that the Constituent Assembly’s works will be extended to become the legislative authority in the country for years to come, in keeping with the provisions of Chapter 10 of the draft on transitional provisions. I wonder whether the Tunisian people will accept this or prefer to go to the street or perhaps accept some to take power in the country on the basis of October 23, 2011 majority whose legitimacy, in my opinion, has already ended.

The interim government recognized the existence of terrorist threat. Do you share that belief and what do you propose to combat terrorism?

We in the Social Democratic Path have already warned against the risk of violence and the groups that support violence. We have also warned that  violence starts verbally and escalates into attacks and assassinations before it gets to the stage of terrorism and war. There are many reasons for this attitude, including the presence of suspicious activities that exploit young people’s enthusiasm and turn them into terrorists in Mali and Syria. These should not be ignored by the Tunisian state, which must seek to repatriate and rehabilitate them to prevent them from joining terrorist groups.

Appropriate study and solutions must be addressed to end this phenomenon. The solution lies in that all parties, organizations and families should play their role towards achieving this goal.

Violence has reached the extent of death threats against some politicians, including you, is that right?

I received death threats through social networks which I have shrugged off, but the most serious one was that my name was included on the target list of a terrorist group whose members were arrested. This terrorist group was preparing to set up a professional assassination group. In addition, I received death threats through a text message sent by a businessman’s  son-in-law and a leader of a Tunisian party. In response to that, I filed a complaint to the security authorities, who started pursuing the case, and  provided me with security protection, which I decided to abandon and face my destiny.