The 18th Francophonie summit, initially scheduled for Djerba next November, has been postponed for one year by the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF).
This postponement, formalized Wednesday, October 13, should “allow Tunisia to be able to organize this important body in the most optimal conditions”, according to press releases from the OIF and the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It’s the second postponement in a year, and everyone seems to be getting along with it.
The official announcement arrived on Wednesday, October 13: already postponed for the first time due to health conditions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 18th Francophonie summit, scheduled in Tunisia, is again postponed for a year. Some African embassies in Paris highlight the fact that Tunisia was not ready to welcome delegates from 88 French-speaking states, explains Claire Fages, of the Africa service of RFI.
But in reality, since power hardened in Tunis and President Kais Saïed assumed full powers, organizing a Francophonie summit in Djerba was embarrassing the OIF member states. Canada appears to have been the most active country in asking for a postponement.
“The postponement was the subject of a consensus”
For its part, France was more and more uncomfortable in the face of Tunisian political hardening, denounced more and more openly by lawyers and human rights activists, in Tunis as in Paris. The official speech remains neutral, however: “We were in favor of any solution agreed between the OIF and Tunisia”, declares a source at the Elysee, while at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is stressed that “the postponement of the summit has is the subject of a consensus of the Permanent Council of the organization”.
One way to leave some leeway to Tunisia. The latter saves face by remaining, for the moment, the host country in a year.
“The coming year will make it possible to support the institutions towards what we all want, that is to say, a return to democratic balance, in order to bring together the necessary and required conditions for the holding of a summit in acceptable conditions “
“The OIF is not a sanctioning organization”
Frédéric Turpin, professor of contemporary history at the University of Savoie and author of La France et la francophonie politique. The history of a difficult rally underlines that it is for the moment a postponement and not a cancellation, as was the case in 1990 for the Francophonie summit in Kinshasa, after the massacres of students in Lubumbashi.
“In Kinshasa, the intensity of the massacres of students had particularly shocked, not only in Zaire (former name of the Democratic Republic of Congo, under Mobutu Sese Seko, editor’s note), but also in all Africa and in the whole world. There, it is a rupture of the constitutional order. This explains why we take a lot more tweezers in the way of initiating a postponement with the Tunisian president. But on the other hand, we also try to keep all possible avenues of dialogue. Because the OIF is not an organization of sanction, but of dialogue and mediation”, develops the historian.
Kaïs Saïed offensive against his opponents
In Tunisia, the announcement of the postponement rekindles some internal political tensions, reports our correspondent in Tunis, Amira Souilem. The exercise was delicate: it was a question of formalizing this new postponement without giving the impression that the country suffered a snub.
By making this news public, Slim Khalbous – head of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie – insisted that the summit would take place next year, still in Tunisia. A deadline is supposed to give the country time to organize it under “optimal” conditions. Some opponents of Kaïs Saïed, such as Moncef Marzouki, first president of post-revolutionary Tunisia, demanded this postponement. Whoever qualifies the July 25 coup as a “coup” hopes that a rapid return to democratic order will enable his country to organize this event next year.
Lobbying against Tunisia which earned it bitter salvos from Kaïs Saïed in several speeches, but also a certain animosity on the part of certain Tunisians who accuse it of having worked to sabotage a little more the image of its country, while it is going through a period of turbulence.
