2023-06-11 20:58:16
Tunisia is mobilizing Europe like never before. Not because of a political exemplarity to be treated: its authoritarian regression under the rule of President Kaïs Saïed makes it, on the contrary, a foil. But because questions about its stability are worrying at the highest level. The visit to Tunis on Sunday June 11 by the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen accompanied by the President of the Italian Council Giorgia Meloni – who was traveling there for the second time in five days – and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte , gives the measure of the extreme importance taken by the Tunisian file within the European Union (EU).
« It is imperative to avoid the economic and social collapse of the country,” launched Josep Borell, the head of European diplomacy, at the end of March. Friday’s degradation by the Fitch agency of Tunisia’s rating, downgraded from CCC + to CCC- (high risk of default), only reinforced fears about the country’s financial health and potentially its social balances.
The alarmism of Mr. Borell had at the time displeased the Tunisian authorities and Ursula Von der Leyen was careful not to express it again. It is only a matter of “ investing in stability and prosperity of Tunisia, underlined on Sunday in Tunis the President of the Commission during a “press statement” without journalists, a practice now well established in the autocratic Tunisia of President Kaïs Saïed and to which the Europeans complied without flinching.
Unblocking the agreement with the IMF
Ursula Von der Leyen has announced a ” general partnership “ between Tunisia and the EU embracing the themes of economy, energy, migration, training…” We have a window of opportunity between now and the European Council, at the end of June, to open a new page in our history,” continued Mrs. Meloni who welcomed the role played by her government in the current effervescence of Brussels on Tunisia.
It is indeed under pressure from Italy, very worried about the increase in the number of migrants and refugees landing on its soil from Tunisia – 26,555 over the first five months of the year (i.e. 7 times more than in 2022) – that the EU is now brooding over Tunis with solicitude. The objective is to put Kaïs Saïed in confidence so that he ends up accepting the loan project from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the amount of 1.9 billion dollars even though he has not stopped in recent months. to refuse the conditions – described as “foreign dictates” –, in particular those requiring the dismantling of subsidies for basic necessities.
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