Labour union seeks to 'save Tunisia from collapse’

The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) yesterday announced that it “will present an initiative to save the country from collapse in cooperation with the components of civil society, away from political tensions.”

This came in a speech by Noureddine Taboubi, the secretary-general of the UGTT, when he said: “We will not accept chaos or the collapse of the country, we are not against parties that build political life and compete over programmes and options.”

He affirmed that the country “suffers from four basic problems: legal, constitutional, economic and social.”

“The UGTT will present an initiative to save the country from collapse in cooperation with the civil society components, in an independent way away from political tensions,” he added, giving no further details.

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The union has previously called on the government to participate in “serious” dialogue to find solutions to the crisis that Tunisia is experiencing.

Taboubi said: “Democracy today is not a blank cheque, and the duty of the one whom the people elected as president of the republic is to secure their living requirements.”

“Tunisians have lost trust in everyone,” he added.

Tunisia is suffering from an economic and financial crisis that has been exacerbated by the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, in addition to the political instability the country has experienced since President Kais Saied imposed exceptional measures on 25 July 2021, dissolving the parliament.

Tunisian forces consider Saied’s exceptional measures a “consolidation of absolute individual rule,” while other forces see them as a “correction of the course of the 2011 revolution,” which toppled former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

While Saied, who started a five-year presidential term in 2019, has said his measures are “necessary and legal” to save Tunisia from “total collapse”.

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