Qais and Paris .. Why did France retreat from its support for the Tunisian president?

Immediately after Tunisian President Kais Saied announced on 25 July “exceptional measures” to dissolve parliament, lift the immunity of its members, dismiss the prime minister and seize a number of powers until, according to his famous interpretation of Article 80 of the Tunisian Constitution, attention turned as usual. Towards the position of the international community on these decisions, which observers considered a rejection of the Tunisian democratic project, which began during the 2011 revolution and the overthrow of the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime.

However, just as the Tunisian interior was divided between supporters and opponents of the decisions of Kais Saied, foreign reactions to the measures announced by the Tunisian president varied.

Some countries welcomed his steps because of their hostility to the political Islam movements represented in Tunisia by the Ennahda movement, while other countries expressed their apprehension about the end of the Carthage Palace of the “Tunisian exception” and the last stronghold of the Arab Spring that was exhausted by counter-revolutions.

And between these two parties, countries with long-established and long-standing interests appeared in Tunisia that did not directly express themselves, but they began to monitor the situation between progress and reluctance, the most prominent of these countries being France, the old and new greedy colonialist in the North African region.

Kais Said: My Arabism fascinates Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron and Tunisian President Kais Saied

Despite his pan-Arabist anti-Western fanaticism, Qais Said has been trying hard since his accession to the Tunisian presidency to maintain good relations with France, as he distances himself from entering into any confrontations with Paris. In June 2020, Kais Saied chose France as the first foreign destination for his presidential plane since his arrival at the Carthage Palace. (1) The Tunisian president ignored the parliamentary list submitted by the "Dignity Coalition" bloc, in which it demanded the French state to apologize for its crimes during its occupation of the country. It prompted a number of political activists to describe this disregard as unacceptable and shameful. (2)

Kais Said is no longer loaded with diplomatic courtesies only from Paris, but also returned with a French loan of 350 million euros, which aims, according to Tunisian and French official sources, to support the development sectors in Tunisia that suffer from the impact of the exhausted economy from the repercussions of the global health crisis as a result of the "Covid-19" epidemic. ".

(3)

That French presence quickly subsided behind Kais Saied, before reappearing a few hours before the "constitutional coup", whose details Saied announced on July 25.

Only two days before his announcement, that is, on July 23, the Tunisian President confirmed in press statements on the sidelines of receiving a French delegation that came to provide medical aid to help the government in facing the increasing number of “Covid-19” patients, that he was about to take some measures, hinting at It will be implemented with the tacit consent of a regional actor, which has led a number of observers to speculate that this party is none other than France. (4)

Qais Said dissolved the Tunisian parliament, overthrew the prime minister, and then began collecting powers in his hand “to protect Tunisia from dangers,” as he repeatedly stated. Attention then turned to Western countries, which considered Tunisia a glimmer of hope about the possibility of democracy in the Arab world. For its part, the United States, led by its President "Joe Biden", contented itself with expressing its concern at first, and confirming its follow-up to the events without describing what happened as a coup.(5) The European Union, for its part, was keen to come up with a joint statement issued on 27 July urging Saeed to return quickly to institutional stability, resume the work of Parliament and preserve democratic gains and legislative frameworks, (6) but this statement did not reflect the differences between European countries Regarding what is happening in Tunisia, because Germany, for example, which is one of the Western countries most keen on the success of the democratic transition, and has worked to support and finance a number of democratic institutions in the country, said through the spokesperson of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs that it does not want to call what happened a “coup.” ", only describing what happened with the "loose interpretation of the constitution", and at the same time stressing its concern about the danger of this step to Tunisian democracy. (7) Italy followed the same course, expressing its concern about the crisis, as expressed by its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio., who said that he is confident in Tunisia's ability to overcome the crisis by democratic means. (8)

As for France, despite affirming through its Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian its aspiration for institutions to return to their work quickly and to form a government capable of helping Tunisia overcome its difficult circumstances, at the same time it showed almost direct support to the Tunisian President, through a statement issued by the Elysee Palace on 7 Last August, he reported that French President Emmanuel Macron had expressed to his Tunisian counterpart that Paris was ready to stand by Tunisia in order to preserve its sovereignty and defend its freedom.

The statement stressed that Tunisia can count on France to overcome the economic, social and health challenges it is facing, which confirms France's desire to maintain its presence in Tunisia, especially since its relationship with the rest of the other Maghreb countries is not in the best condition.

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Premature French enthusiasm

France sees in Tunisia a golden opportunity to hit more than one bird with one stone. It seeks first to overthrow the Ennahda movement, which represents political Islam and France's number one enemy in the country these days, and secondly to maintain a strong presence in North Africa and the Middle East, to participate in building the future of Libya in the first place. France, with all its political currents from the far right to the far left, believes that political Islam must be fought with all its might. Macron, who previously issued the isolationism law to besiege "political Islam", shares the same trend with the leaders of the far-right in France. (10)

This desire to rid not only France, but also the Arab world itself, of any Islamic political project appeared in Macron’s speech on October 2, 2020 on the project of isolationism, as he gave an example in Tunisia itself, which was much better 30 years ago, he said, before To become a victim of a religious-political project that threatens many countries, especially the Muslim-majority countries. (11) Prior to his statement, and during the Tunisian National Constituent Assembly elections that followed the Tunisian revolution, the French media showed great interest in the Tunisian community in France voting for the Islamic Ennahda movement, which contributed to placing it in first place in that election. (12) Then Hassan Chalghoumi, the imam known for his closeness to the Jewish lobbies in France and the right-wing decision-making circles, called on Western countries to confront the Islamists and not allow them to reach power and not be deceived by their slogans and rhetoric because they seek to implement Islamic law, he said. (13)

In addition to fighting and curtailing political Islam, Paris aims through its involvement in Tunisian politics to maintain a good relationship with a party with a strong connection to Libya, which is preparing for presidential elections in which "Khalifa Haftar", who was previously supported by France, will participate. A noticeable decline following the peace talks sponsored by the United Nations, as well as after the recent expansion of Russian influence in the African Sahel region, which was considered an exclusive area of ​​French influence in the past. (14)

In the same context, France was keen to organize an international conference on Libya, which was launched on November 12, and aims, according to the Elysee’s statements, to “provide international support for the continuation of the ongoing political transition and the holding of elections on time,” in addition to ensuring the expulsion of foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya. .

(15) But Macron's chances of convincing the Libyan interior and the rest of the countries of this matter remain slim, as Paris actually supported Haftar against the government of western Libya, and attacked the Turkish role repeatedly, for example, during the press conference that followed Macron's meeting with Qais Said in June / June 2020. (16)

Haftar and Macron

Paris sees the stability of Libya as a great opportunity to participate in the reconstruction process and benefit from future oil agreements, which will open the door for French companies to invest, led by Total, which has exploration rights in a number of Libyan fields.

In addition, France wants to preserve its military and security interests, and perhaps expand the establishment of a military base in Libya to secure its current bases in the Sahel and Sahara region.

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step back

At the beginning of the Tunisian constitutional coup, France dealt with great caution, as it did not want to rush as it did during the Jasmine Revolution, when the French Minister of Defense, "Michel Alliot-Marie" proposed providing logistical support to the Ben Ali regime to suppress the movement in the Tunisian street, which is a disgrace on the forehead of France. She continues to pursue her every time she affirms her commitment to freedom and human rights. (18) Therefore, the coverage of France 24, which is affiliated with the French public media, seemed apprehensive, as it quoted Qais Saied's statements he made, and only referred to the demonstrations that took place in the country to protest against the Ennahda movement. (19) On July 30, Le Monde newspaper published a report about the support of Tunisian youth in the city of Sfax, one of the strongholds of the Ennahda movement, for the decisions of the Tunisian president and their desire for change after years of successive crises that followed the departure of Ben Ali. (20)

However, the warning of the French media quickly turned to attacking Kais Saied after he showed his unwillingness to redistribute powers, especially after the September 22 decree in which the Tunisian president granted himself the right to legislate. (21) The newspaper "Le Figaro" published a report highlighting the demonstrations that took place in the country on November 15, entitled "The belt against Qais Said organizes itself", in reference to the start of a street movement against the authorities of the current Tunisian president, and the newspaper pointed out that The demonstrations in the country did not raise any party slogans, and liberals, leftists and Islamists participated in them. (22)

For its part, "Le Monde" attacked Qais Said in its editorial last September, describing him as the gravedigger of Tunisian democracy, and considering that the decisions he made, which were supposed to be temporary, appear to be the opposite, as Said tries - according to the newspaper - to establish an exceptional system. After the decree of September 22. (23) Le Monde said that no one denies the great problems that Tunisia suffers from, and that many Tunisians looked at Qais Said as the savior from the current predicament, but added that the Tunisian president, instead of being a figure seeking national consensus and dialogue, closed the doors to his opponents and killed the dialogue internal.

Officially, despite the appointment of “Najla Boden”, affiliated with the Francophone movement, as prime minister, the relationship between the Elysee and the Carthage Palace has not shown any signs of improvement, despite the continuous communication between Kais Saied and Macron, the French party believes that the Tunisian president is not really seeking solutions the country out of its crisis. In this context, Tunisian journalist Khair El-Din Pasha said in a statement to "Maidan" that a number of countries, including France, learned after a period of Saeed's decisions that the latter does not actually have all the keys to the Tunisian game, as he represents one of the parties to the Tunisian game. Various are participating in the "balance of weakness" game that dominates the Tunisian political scene. He considered "Pasha"In his speech, the Tunisian revolution redistributed the cards of power between a number of currents, a first current that owes allegiance to the previous regime and the movement of the Ennahda movement, and the current of civil forces that enjoy strength inside Tunisia, despite their weak presence in decision-making centers, to a degree that makes them among the influential in the local political arena. , in addition to a new segment of supporters for the person of Qais Saeed and his decisions.

The Tunisian journalist attributed France's reluctance to intervene directly in Tunisia to the ambiguity of the scene in the country, commenting: "The French want real steps on the ground, and therefore they will not be interested, for example, in appointing a Francophone prime minister, or in accepting the return of thousands of irregular Tunisians recently, if these moves do not follow steps Stable contributes to venting the tension inside the country. Pasha believes that France is also apprehensive about interfering in Tunisia because of the Libyan issue, the American presence in the region, and the competition of a number of countries over the reconstruction cake in Libya, which makes Paris captive to a careful study of its steps in light of its tense relationship with a number of friendly countries such as the United States of America And Britain after the issue of Australia canceling the French submarine deal and what followed.

All these complications in the Tunisian internal affairs, and the unprecedented divergence of positions between the major Western countries in recent years, make the crisis in Tunisia likely to continue and escalate, and in light of the fear of several countries that the country will enter the quagmire of the Lebanese scenario, in which the political forces were unable to find solutions It was real, and France practiced nothing but showy diplomacy that did not achieve any of its narrow political goals, and at the same time did not address any of the crises of the Lebanese citizen.

In the end, the life of the ordinary citizen in Tunisia is in crisis like his counterparts in several countries such as Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Iraq, and the cycle of events that erupted when the masses came out ten years ago and more than ten years ago to shout that the people want a decent life and a just system, and the efforts of the tyrannical parties continue here and there to restore Producing old equations, taking advantage of the confusion of the nascent political forces at times and the failure of the powers of the West to converge on the heart of one alliance at other times, an alliance that seems to be slowly learning that France is learning that it does not have a single weight of its own sufficient to decide the results, even if this was in a small country in which it once owned the keys to decision All decades ago.

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