Appeal for Tunisia people to regain sovereignty

Following the conclusion of the 18th Francophone summit in Tunisia, the general coordinator of the Swiss Initiative to Support Democracy in Tunisia, Anouar Gharbi, has called on the Tunisian people to defend their economic, cultural and political interests, and be extremely wary of the French government policies toward the north African country.

Gharbi who served as an advisor on foreign affairs to former president Moncef Marzouki said there is ample evidence of “growing French intervention in Tunisia’s internal affairs.”

He added, “It took France more than a century to build its democracy after the French revolution; why does Macron and France seek to deny Tunisians of the same development?”

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Gharbi warned of the role played by the Tunisian Francophone elite, upon whom France relies for its understanding of Tunisian politics. Some of this elite is so subservient to France politically and culturally that some of its members have demanded direct French intervention to rescue the country.

Most Tunisians aspire to a modern state in which the values of the Islamic civilization and universal rights are embraced. This, however, is a cultural, educational, political and civil effort that the Tunisian people must undertake themselves, he said.

“We urgently need to recover our sovereignty and our independent decision-making in Tunisia,” Gharbi affirmed.