Fear reigns in Tunisia as repression intensifies

 A protest, demanding the release of imprisoned journalists, activists, opposition figures and setting a date for fair presidential elections in Tunis, 

Arrests have stepped up since late April, affecting both anti-racist activists and media personalities. In his crusade against elites, President Kais Saied has even had the Tunisian Swimming Federation president and the anti-doping agency head arrested.

Repression has intensified in recent weeks in Tunisia, targeting sub-Saharan migrants, NGOs, journalists, civil servants and lawyers. The crackdown began at the end of April, with operations to dismantle temporary settlements of sub-Saharan migrants near Sfax, the country’s second-largest city. On May 3, security measures were extended to Tunis, where a migrant camp set up opposite the headquarters of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was forcibly cleared.

President Kais Saied justified the operations at a security council meeting on Monday, May 6, saying that “400 people” – men, women and children – had been moved to the “eastern border,” which neighbors Libya. In the same speech, he criticized NGOs helping migrants, accusing them of receiving “huge sums of money from abroad” and calling their leaders “traitors” and “agents.”

After the speech, the repression was almost immediate. Saadia Mosbah, an anti-racist activist and president of the Mnemty association, which fights racial discrimination in Tunisia, was arrested the same day and placed in police custody under the country’s anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering act. 

The European Union said on Tuesday it was concerned about the wave of arrests of many civil society figures, journalists and political activists, and demanded clarifications from Tunisia as the North African country faces a growing political crisis.

“Freedoms of expression and association, as well as the independence of the judiciary, are guaranteed by the Tunisian Constitution and constitute the basis of our partnership,” the EU said in statement.

U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel responded that the raids were “inconsistent with what we think are universal rights that are explicitly guaranteed in the Tunisian constitution and we have been clear about at all levels.”

Tunisia’s election: The beginning of the end for Saeid ?

Tunisia has been plunged into political uncertainty after it recorded the lowest electoral turnout in its recent history following President Kais Saied’s suspension of parliament and subsequent redrawing of the country’s political map.

Its main opposition alliance called on Saied to “leave immediately” as voters overwhelmingly snubbed the legislative election in what officials at the country’s Instance Supérieure Indépendante pour les Élections (ISIE) said was a participation rate of 8.8%.

Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, president of Tunisia’s “Salvation Front” alliance, which boycotted the vote and has accused Saied of a coup against Tunisia’s democracy said the president had “lost all legal legitimacy”. An abstention rate of more than 91% “shows that very, very few Tunisians support Kais Saied’s approach”, Chebbi told Agence France-Presse

The refusal by most Tunisians to participate in the election should not in any way be perceived as voter apathy. Tunisians are still as interested in the future of their country as they have ever been. They had no enthusiasm for this vote because they knew from the very beginning that its outcome would not help better the grave economic and social conditions they are living in.

What makes things even worse for Saied and his cronies is that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has postponed its authorisation for an urgently needed $1.9bn loan from December 2022 to at least January 2023. This delay amid a gaping deficit and a deepening cost of living crisis will undoubtedly worsen the economic struggles of Tunisians and make their situation even less tolerable. Together with the gradual abolition of bread subsidies and the plans for other substantial public spending cuts, this delay in IMF funding could result in an uprising

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/12/19/tunisias-election-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-saeid

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Le journal du peintre

Les tableaux du peintre

Painting news project

Twitter

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