Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed discussed on the telephone with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on May 3 his opposition to the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to grant a loan to his country. He also addressed the issue of illegal immigration.
“The IMF conditions are like a match that ignites alongside highly explosive materials ,” the Tunisian president told the French president, according to a statement published on the official page of the presidency.
Tunisia, indebted to about 80% of its GDP, obtained an agreement in principle from the IMF in mid-October for a new loan of nearly 2 billion dollars to help it overcome the serious financial crisis it is going through. .
But talks are deadlocked due to the country’s lack of firm commitment to implement a reform program to restructure Tunisia’s more than 100 heavily indebted state-owned companies and lift subsidies on certain commodities.
In this interview, President Saïed – who had already expressed his rejection of the “dictates” of the IMF – evoked the sad memory of the bread riots under the Habib Bourguiba regime in the 1980s because of the abolition of subsidies on cereals products.
According to an official report, these riots had caused several dozen deaths, but it would be higher, according to NGOs.
To enable the state to do without an IMF loan, Kaïs Saïed proposed on June 1 the introduction of additional taxes targeting the richest.
Kaïs Saïed also raised the issue of illegal immigration with the French president, calling for the organization of a summit bringing together countries from both shores of the Mediterranean. The Tunisian president has already mentioned the idea of this meeting in an interview on June 2 with the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni who has accepted an invitation to go to Tunisia soon, according to the presidency.
The Tunisian authorities often call on the European Union to show solidarity, particularly in the fight against illegal immigration.
Tunisia, some portions of the coastline of which are less than 150 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa, very regularly records attempts by migrants, mainly from sub-Saharan African countries, to leave for Italy.
