French involvement in Tunisia and recent happenings

Posted on 10 November 2021

13 min read

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In 2009 Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and the Democratic Constitutional Rally were dominating the political life in Tunisia by using threats of terrorism and religious extremism as one of the means to put pressure and to dissuade peaceful dissent coming from other parties, in order to install an effective policy of terror, when Ali was elected, he designed laws with the goal of excluding opponents, alongside recurring to acts of intimidation against any possible rival as well as imposing strict censorship with the blocking of the distribution of newspapers containing electoral platforms and the reprimand of eventual political campaigns distancing themselves from the ones that he carried out, these acts are perfectly in line with a one-party-rule mentality, in addition, many human rights activists were assaulted during the campaign period and, in doing so, he managed to be elected with a total of 89.6 percent of the votes.

It’s needless to say that even though Tunisia’s constitution foresees that the judiciary apparat must be independent, the political and executive side heavily influences judicial decisions, it’s immediately clear that the very fairness of a system deteriorates itself when it lacks the trust that it needs to survive, therefore causing the failure of the assurance system provided to the defendants in order for them to have a chance at justice with a fair trial, as a matter of fact, it seems that trial judges currently convict defendants mainly due to coerced confessions, contributing to worsening the conditions of an already corrupt system, moreover, let’s not forget that independent human rights organizations have been repeatedly stopped from intervening causing the judges to turn of a blind eye when authorities exceed what the law permits as far as the sentences related to suspects of affiliation with the Islamist movement are concerned.

The situation does not get better when it comes to media freedom, although Tunisia has privately-owned radio and television stations, they are frequently banned from accessing domestic, international political, and human rights websites sources.

Furthermore, the Tunisian parliament adopted in 2009 an amendment concerning the definition of a terrorist act, narrowing it to an “incitement to hatred”, consequently those arrested in the context of the counterterrorism law commonly face a range of procedural abuses such as the failure by authorities to notify their kin promptly, in violation of Tunisian law, an extension of pre-arraignment detention beyond the legal six-day limit, and the refusal of judges and prosecutors to act on requests for a medical examination.

If one thought it couldn’t get worse, the socio-economic situation has been steadily worsening for the last decade, leading to unrest and protests that required the intervention of several international partners in order for them to be sedated; when it comes to allies, France is Tunisia’s main trade partner, as well as its fourth-largest foreign investor and, in March 2009, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, stated: “It’s true that there are human rights abuses in Tunisia, journalists who are harassed, sometimes imprisoned, and a general policy of firmness.” And continued “We are concerned by the difficulties faced by journalists and human rights defenders in Tunisia, we have conveyed our concerns to the Tunisian ambassador and raised them with our European partners.”

In spite of these alleged concerns, once President Ali’s despotic regime was taken down, France received quite the criticism for the lack of political involvement in Tunisia’s struggle against democracy, Michèle Alliot-Marie, French Foreign Affairs Minister, was reproached for defending a policy of “non-interference” in the political affairs of another state because to the public it seemed hypocritical that the ration behind “staying clear of Tunisia’s political problems” did not apply to the Sarkozy administration, which was swift in urging Ivory Coast’s former president Gbagbo to give up his role unless he wished to incur in stiff sanctions, a clear violation of the previously preached non-interference policy.

What Sarkozy has failed to understand is that France’s strength is its cultural and ethnic diversity, and failure to understand these principles will further aggravate an already self-combusting climate.

More recently, the situation in Tunisia is rapidly escalating, especially on the financial side, a combination of factors contributed to the rapid regression of the said country starting on September 2, 2020, when a new government was installed, its Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi stated multiple times that the main priority of his government, once elected, would have been the addressing of both the economic and social situation alongside a substantial amount of reforms, cut subsidies and programs sustaining organizations like State-Owned Enterprises, but the government has yet to present a comprehensive, detailed strategy to confront the country’s deep economic and financial challenges, now reflected in unprecedented levels of the budget deficit and public debt.

Even before COVID-19, Tunisia’s capacity for economic resilience had been drained by years of indecisive public policymaking and growing protectionism, in fact, according to 2010 data, nearly 15.5 percent of Tunisians lived below the poverty line, whereas in 2014 the poverty rate was as high as 24.7 percent.

In addition, the way the government handled the COVID-19 pandemic has done nothing but worsen the already precarious situation the country is living in, and fuel anger and upheaval due to the rising in unemployment which has grown exponentially from 18 percent to 40 percent among young people, moreover the country has also struggled with recurring attacks by the so-called Islamic State (IS), which has devastated the tourism industry.

References:

How Tunisia reached financial meltdown, available at:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/24/how-tunisia-reached-financial-meltdown

Impacts of Covid-19 on Household Welfare in Tunisia, available at:

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/gcc/publication/impacts-of-covid-19-on-household-welfare-in-tunisia

Policy Research Working Paper 9503, avilable at: https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/529381608228318922/pdf/Impacts-of-COVID-19-on-Household-Welfare-in-Tunisia.pdf

Tunisia’s Economic Update, available at:

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/tunisia/publication/economic-update-april-2021

The world bank in Tunisia, available at:

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/tunisia/overview#2

The World bank in Tunisia context, available at:

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/tunisia/overview#1