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The President of the Republic Kaïs Saïed made a surprise visit to the Francophonie village in Djerba in the south of the country where the Francophonie Summit is being held on November 19 and 20, 2022. This Friday, November 18, the Tunisian President offered a walkabout and recalled in a statement that those who “ attempted to sabotage ” the top “ have failed without naming those concerned.
With our correspondent in Djerba, Lilia Blaise
The presidential visit comes in a tense context in Tunisia for human rights and freedom of speech. A political figure was banned from traveling this week, a journalist from a website appeared in court, after an article about the head of government.
Surrounded by the Presidential Guard, Kaïs Saïed, as usual, created a crowd during his visit to the village of la Francophonie. Asked about the state of freedoms in the country, Kaïs Saïed, who has been concentrating power for more than a year, said: “ We will never go back. What has been acquired and will certainly be acquired in the future will be better. »
In addition to the economic and social crisis that the country is already experiencing, there are concerns about the regression of human rights.
« There must not be a facade of freedom, there must be an effective freedomadds President Saïed. And effective freedom is not freedom of expression, but freedom of thought. There must be justice, real justice, the magistrates must be at the rendezvous with history. »
But according to magistrates, threats hang over the independence of the judiciary. Despite this tense context, the Tunisian authorities insist on their desire to make a success of the summit of La Francophonie, which opens this weekend on the island.