Tunisia is a nice little Arab Mediterranean country located in the very north of Africa (I know this well, for I was the Russian ambassador to Tunisia in the late twentieth century). Except for considerable phosphate reserves, there are hardly any minerals.
Since gaining its independence in 1956, Tunisia has placed a strong emphasis on luring tourists, building a vast network of hotels of all calibers and capitalizing on its advantageous geographic location, specifically the warm gentle sea. The country’s rulers placed particular emphasis on the development of its education system, and as a result, graduates of Tunisian universities are well qualified, have good knowledge of foreign languages and, in principle, are highly valued in the labor market.
In 2011, Tunisia became the spearhead of the so-called “Arab Spring” that is, mass demonstrations of the people against the corrupt rulers. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, commonly known as Ben Ali, who had ruled the country since 1987, was overthrown and fled to Saudi Arabia.
These events are known as the Jasmine Revolution. Elections were held, and a coalition of secular and Islamist parties came to power. In the Western powers, many complimentary articles have been written about Tunisia becoming a model of democracy for Arab and African countries because the coalition that came to power is an example worthy of implementation.
However, the years that have passed since the revolution have shown that various forces in the government are pulling the country in different directions, as in the well-known fable The Swan, the Pike, and the Crayfish. As a result, the country experienced more than ten years of economic stagnation, a chronic food shortage, and a severe financial crisis. According to official data in May of this year, inflation reached 10%, and unemployment rose to 16.1% in the Q1 of this year, compared with 15.2% in the Q4 of the previous year.
The country’s debt is estimated at about 80 percent of its GDP.
In 2019, Kais Saied, a well-known expert in constitutional law, was elected as president of the Republic of Tunisia. He immediately embarked on a course of bringing order to the country, fighting corruption and removing the Islamists from power.
The opposition, backed by the Western media, wrote extensively about his errors, and complained that the armchair scholar was heading the country in the wrong direction. However, the president maintained his position by expelling the Islamists from the administration and the parliament and by arresting their most senior member.
He focused on measures to improve the economy of the nation and, as early as October 2022, established an agreement with the IMF for almost two billion dollars in assistance; however, talks of the loan later stalled. The IMF insisted on passing a law to restructure more than 100 state-owned companies that have monopolies in a number of sectors of the economy. In addition, the Foundation demanded cuts in food and energy subsidies.
Kais Saied rejected the IMF diktat, stating that it was unacceptable and would further impoverish the population. According to a representative of the 25th of July Movement, a Tunisian pro-presidential movement, the EU countries tried to impose their vision of governing the country on the president, forcing him to accept their conditions. Kais Saied claims that Western nations will exploit every matter involving Tunisian domestic and foreign policy, as well as anything he says, against him. In doing so, the EU tried to inject 2-3 million migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa into Tunisia as leverage for the country. Brussels urged Tunisia to return to the values of “democracy and the rule of law… that Tunisia chose during the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.”
Open pressure on the Tunisian authorities in this regard has been applied by the US administration, which has announced reductions in aid. Simultaneously, the European Parliament approved a special resolution in March of this year denouncing “the authoritarian path of the Tunisian president.”
The media has extensively exploited the fact that each day, hundreds of sub-Saharan African migrants attempt to get from Tunisia to Italy by boat, with scores of them drowning.
In response, the president stated that Tunisia would not agree to reduce subsidies for flour and fuel and widely privatize state-owned enterprises. He claimed that these actions will cause social upheaval. Instead, he stated unequivocally that he was willing to levy an additional tax on the wealthy.
He emphasized that his country would not serve as Europe’s border police. According to him, thousands of refugees could change the demographic composition of the country and turn Tunisia into a state that does not belong to the Arab and Islamic peoples.
The European Union was compelled to recede due to Tunisia’s stern and constant stance. At the initiative of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the European Union promised Tunisia a $1 billion loan, presented as “macrofinancial assistance to rescue the faltering economy.” Of course, it was agreed that 113 million dollars would go to border control, search and rescue operations, and anti-smuggling initiatives.
Kais Saied highlights frequently that migrants are victims of a worldwide system that “treats them not as human beings, but only as numbers.” European countries cannot build a cohesive policy on migration; Italy has been particularly hard-hit, with over 50 thousand migrants having landed by boat since the beginning of the year (compared to less than 20 thousand during the same period last year).
At the same time, the European Union is concerned that Tunisia’s economic collapse may result in a new surge of migrants into Europe, according to Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Indeed, the actions of Tunisia’s president demonstrate that an increasing number of developing countries are refusing to accept the demands of neocolonialist powers, preferring to defend their own interests rather than appease the West.
Articles in the European press claimed that the Maghreb countries were acting “wrongly.” So, Algeria declared its readiness to join the BRICS, and President Abdelmadjid Tebboune even went to Russia for talks with Putin, so Western countries decided to put pressure on the Tunisian president not to go the way of Algeria. This explains all the IMF’s deceitful actions, including withholding loans and encouraging more people to leave sub-Saharan Africa.
Notably, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately urged Tunisia to accept the IMF reform plan. US newspapers reported that Tunisia was taking a step toward authoritarianism, especially after the dissolution of Parliament and the arrest of the opposition leader.
It is rather typical of the West that it does not abandon its methods of blackmail and pressure: in mid-June of this year, two senators (one Republican, one Democrat) introduced a bill “On the restoration of democracy in Tunisia.” It argues that President Kais Saied has taken steps to undermine democratic institutions, so funding for Tunisia should be restricted until he “restores checks and balances.”
Nonetheless, Tunisia’s president refuses to change his position and, despite a campaign of intimidation and threats, maintains his proclaimed policy.
The Western powers can’t get out of their position as masters of humanity and are constantly trying to tell other countries how to behave and what policies to pursue.
Recent events in Tunisia demonstrate that the international relations system is changing at a rapid speed, since even a little country like Tunisia is no longer willing to accept the dictates of the West.
Veniamin Popov, Director of the “Center for Partnership of Civilizations” in MGIMO (U) MFA of Russia, Candidate of Historical Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
