July 8, 2015 President Beji Caid Essebsi of Tunisia has declared a state of emergency to give his government the upper hand in the fight against terrorism. He took this step on the 4th of July, following a militant attack on a beach hotel, which claimed the lives of 38 foreign tourists.
According to the president, the new law temporarily gives the government more executive flexibility, and hands the army and police more authority, while restricting people’s rights to public assembly. Here’s some of his speech to the effect:
“We are used to fighting terrorism in the mountains and our army and the National Guard and the Security Forces — as I have said before — have paid a heavy price with their blood,”
“We were heading down the path of overcoming this phenomenon. But our enemies left (the mountains) and came to the cities. The large attack that we thought was going to be the last was the Bardo (museum). But after that, the big tragedy came that took place in Sousse. The number of the victims, visitors in the Sousse hotel, was even larger than in the first tragedy,”
The bloody massacre at the Sousse resort comes after a gun attack on the Bardo museum in Tunis in March, and both are regarded as two of the worst militant assaults in the country’s modern history. ISIS has claimed responsibility for both attacks which have dealt a heavy blow to the country’s tourism.