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President Kais Saied has proposed a new constitution that would formalise his sweeping seizure of powers after dismantling much of Tunisia's young democracy over 11 turbulent months.

But as he prepares for a referendum to approve his changes, challenges loom ever larger, with the economy facing collapse and opposition to his rule growing.

A former law lecturer with a stiff public manner, Saied moved against the parliament last summer, surrounding its building with tanks, giving himself the right to rule by decree and assuming ultimate authority over the judiciary.

He has depicted his actions as a corrective to political dysfunction and corruption caused by the 2014 constitution that shared powers between president and parliament.

But his critics say he is a new dictator whose power grab last year was tantamount to a coup and whose march to one-man rule has trashed the democratic gains of Tunisia's 2011 revolution.

The constitution he announced late on Thursday enshrines a supreme role for the president, relegating both parliament and judiciary to functions of the state he will lead, rather than branches of power in their own right.

Having framed his July 25, 2021, seizure of powers as the start of a new republic, he has set the referendum on his new constitution on the anniversary of that date.

Saied was a political novice when elected president in 2019. Less than two years later, he outmanoeuvred his more experienced political adversaries, including the Islamist Ennahda party, with his sudden moves against the parliament and previous cabinet. These steps heralded the start of his bid to amass power.

They appeared to be hugely popular among Tunisians who were fed up with political bickering and economic malaise. Thousands took to the streets to celebrate and the president basked in a stated conviction that he represented the will of the people.

His supporters have hailed him as an independent man of integrity standing up to elite forces whose bungling and corruption have condemned Tunisia to a decade of political paralysis and economic stagnation.

But critics are deeply sceptical of promises he will preserve the rights and freedoms won in 2011, which he has written into the draft constitution, and say he is throttling Tunisia's nascent democracy. Saied has painted his opponents as enemies of the people and has urged arrests of those who defy him.

While it is unclear just how much backing Saied continues to enjoy, opinion polls have indicated declining support. The economy is in deep trouble and Tunisians are growing poorer.

The powerful labour union is already mounting public sector strikes over economic reforms required for an IMF bailout and has also indicated it disapproves of his referendum.

Though opposition to Saied is fragmented, with the most powerful parties refusing to put aside old differences to reject his plans, it has mobilised thousands of demonstrators in protests against him.

By contrast, after a pro-Saied rally last year that Reuters journalists present said had drawn only a few thousand, the president boasted that 1.8 million of his supporters had flocked to the streets.

NEW REVOLUTION

Tunisian politics is closely watched abroad because of the country's role in triggering the 2011 "Arab Spring" uprisings and its success as the sole democracy to emerge from them.

Saied, a solemn, 64-year-old who speaks an ultra-formal style of classical Arabic, wants to rewrite the history of that revolution, when he would walk at night through Tunis's old city talking with protesters.

He has changed the date when the state marks its anniversary to play down the ousting of autocratic president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and has rejected the results of hard negotiations afterwards that led to a democratic constitution.

That 2014 constitution was the work of rival political parties and civil society organisations who held a grand national dialogue to work past bitter disputes for a compromise that seemed to bring the country together.

Upon his election in 2019 as an independent candidate, defeating a media mogul accused of corruption in a landslide second-round victory, he declared a new revolution.

Besides dismissing the unpopular but elected parliament, Saied has ousted the previously independent judicial authorities and electoral commission, raising fears over rule of law and the integrity of elections.

He has also purged state employees, including some in the security services, to oust people linked to the main political parties.

He has since said he wants to hold new parliamentary elections in December.

For many Tunisians, Saied remains something of a caricature whose frequent online videos show him lecturing subordinates or visitors from behind the presidential desk.

Those videos have given few insights into policy plans to address Tunisia's main economic problems, but they have often included fiery rhetoric against his detractors and opponents, adding to fears the president seeks autocratic ends. (Reuters)

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said it was impossible to meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis until the Greek leader "pulls himself together", broadcaster NTV said on Friday, amid renewed tensions between the NATO members and neighbours.

Historic rivals, Turkey and Greece have been at odds over issues ranging from overflights and the status of Aegean islands, maritime boundaries and hydrocarbon resources in the Mediterranean, and ethnically split Cyprus.

Erdogan has said Mitsotakis "no longer exists for him" after the Greek premier lobbied for the United States not to sell Turkey F-16 fighter jets during a speech at the U.S. Congress and the NATO members traded accusations over airspace violations and the islands.

"Let him pull himself together. As long as he doesn't pull himself together, it is not possible for us to meet," Erdogan told reporters on a return flight from a NATO summit in Madrid.

Speaking to reporters in Madrid on Thursday, Mitsotakis said EU member Greece was open to dialogue with Turkey, and repeated he would not engage in a "dialogue of personal confrontations" with Erdogan.

"I'll keep insisting that Greece's door to a dialogue within the framework we have identified, this door is always open. And at the same time, our country will continue, whenever it has the opportunity, to raise the issues of Turkish aggression within the European Union, bilaterally to our partners," he said.

Mitsotakis added Greece was "forming its own alliances" and that it wanted support from allies on national issues, but also sought Turkey as an interlocutor.

Erdogan has been angered by Mitsotakis over what he says is the Greek leader's reversal from a promise to discuss bilateral matters together, without involving other parties. He has also cancelled a high-level dialogue meeting between the neighbours in response to the tensions.

Mitsotakis also said on Thursday Greece had sent an official request to the United States for the purchase of 20 F-35 fighter jets and was examining the purchase of a second batch, as Athens beefs up military procurements amid the tensions with Ankara. (Reuters)

Russia's ambassador to Bulgaria said on Friday she would ask Moscow to close down its embassy in the Balkan country after her appeal for Sofia to reverse a decision to expel 70 Russian diplomatic staff was ignored.

In a statement addressed to the Bulgarian people, the ambassador, Eleonora Mitrofanova, said the closure of the Russian embassy would inevitably lead to the closure of Bulgaria's embassy in Moscow too.

Bulgaria, an EU and NATO member state and once a close ally of Russia, has been roiled by diplomatic tensions this week after outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov announced the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomatic staff on espionage concerns. 

The move was the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats by Sofia in recent years and more than halved the size of Moscow's diplomatic footprint in Bulgaria.

Russia's ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova called the expulsions an "unprecedented hostile step and on Thursday told Sofia to reverse its decision by midday on Friday. If it did not, she said she would ask Moscow to consider ending Russia's physical diplomatic presence in Bulgaria altogether. 

Petkov earlier on Friday rejected her ultimatum.

"Unfortunately our appeal to Bulgaria's ministry of foreign affairs was ignored," Mitrofanova, the Russian ambassador, wrote in a statement.

"I intend to quickly put the question of the closure of Russia's embassy in Bulgaria before my country's leadership, which will inevitably mean the closure of the Bulgarian diplomatic mission in Moscow," she wrote.

Responsibility for any ensuing serious consequences lay with Petkov's outgoing government, she said.

About 60 people gathered in front of the Russian embassy in Sofia on Friday to demonstrate against the government's decision to expel the Russian diplomatic staff.

Supporters of Petkov's decision plan a rally on Sunday at Sofia airport, when the 70 Russian diplomatic staff and their families are due to leave the country. (Reuters)

The Independent National Bureaucratic Reform Team (TIRBN) of the Ministry of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform (PAN RB) Eva Kusuma Sundari said the late PAN RB Minister Tjahjo Kumolo was a very simple figure, especially in everyday life.

"I was close to him when he was appointed a member of the Century Special Committee, then Mr. Tjahjo asked about the booklet, I made a report in the form of a booklet, Mr. Tjahjo said I published your writing, it was good for public relations, so it was made into a book," ahe said while talking to Pro 3 RRI, Friday (1/7/2022).

He said he had lost a good senior figure for him. That's because, there is no other politician like Tjahjo Kumolo.

"He once said he didn't expect to become a minister and once said that I'll be old enough to become a member of the DPR, a politician who has more friends than enemies," ahe added.

It is known that the Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform (Menpan RB) Tjahjo Kumolo reportedly died, Friday (1/7/2022) today.

He passed away at 11.10 WIB at the Abdi Waluyo Hospital. (RRI)