The Interview - Elies Fakhfakh on France 24: "We have managed to control the Covid-19 epidemic in Tunisia"

Tunisian Prime Minister Elies Fakhfakh welcomes the management of the coronavirus pandemic in his country and displays cautious optimism, saying that the evolution of the number of cases is encouraging. "The Covid-19 curve is quite good," he said in an exclusive interview with France 24. No new cases of contamination have been recorded in the country "for two days".

Tunisia has imposed strict and early containment to fight the coronavirus pandemic. A policy that has paid off, since only 45 deaths have been officially registered, for 1032 people infected.

>> See our report in Tunisia: "Containment, a difficult test for the most precarious"

The Tunisian Prime Minister is also confident about the deconfinement in stages, who is committed and is delighted that the "contract of trust" between the authorities and the Tunisians to stem the pandemic works. "We must keep this vigilance which pays (...) We have come to control this epidemic".

He adds that the objective of a full restart of the country on June 14 is maintained, specifying that this could be done more quickly, but also that he would not hesitate to return to a "total containment" in case of rebound of the epidemic.

Regarding the economic situation in Tunisia, Elies Fakhfakh explains that the expected historical recession of more than 4% could be worse depending on the global economic situation. According to him, the need for international aid budgeted for this year, of 2.5 billion dollars, should "at least double".

Finally, the Tunisian Prime Minister rejects criticism of his government and the quarrels between certain members of his coalition. He rules out for the moment the possibility that the Qalb Tunes party, led by Nabil Karoui, will join the government coalition, stressing that the priorities are the health crisis and the revival of the economy, and not "political politics ".

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