Anti-migrant discourse in Tunisia: "A way to make people forget the country's problems"

"Freedom, freedom, down with the police state", "stop impoverishment", thousands of people marched in Tunis on Saturday March 4, at the call of the country's main union, the UGTT, which called on President Kaïs Saïed to accept "dialogue".  

The protest comes after weeks of arrests targeting notorious opponents of the head of state, in the first major crackdown since he seized most power in the summer of 2021. The demonstrators also denounced the attacks against sub-Saharan nationals in recent days following a speech by the president on February 21 against illegal immigration.

Update on the situation with Vincent Geisser, researcher at the CNRS, specialist in the Maghreb. 

France 24

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Vincent Geisser

 : These demonstrations aim to show that the street belongs to Tunisians in a context of repression.

It is also a way of maintaining a pacifist balance of power with the president and not letting him control public space.

Currently, militant circles find themselves under surveillance.

They do not want to relive the trauma of the dictatorship of Ben Ali [ex-president from 1987 to 2011, editor's note] where we could not demonstrate.

They want to tell themselves that there is an achievement of mobilization beyond repression and arrests.  

By calling Kaïs Saïed to "dialogue", the UGTT, which wants to represent the whole of Tunisian society beyond the employees, believes in a pacifist solution, where the president is rather tempted to respond with repression.

Unfortunately, the campaign of mass arrests of opponents, journalists and NGOs will continue.

And I'm not sure that mobilization encourages ordinary citizens to join the movement.

Fear returns to Tunisia. 

Finally, we must not neglect the part of Tunisians who think that the president is right, in particular on his position against migrants.

A certain part of the population has become complicit in denouncing people in an irregular situation, hence the arrests and attacks suffered by many sub-Saharans. 

>> To read also: "A climate of fear": in Tunisia, sub-Saharan migrants stigmatized and attacked

How to explain the arrival of the discourse of great replacement with regard to the Tunisian political context

Since the coup d'état of July 25, 2021, President Kaïs Saïed has been in a conspiratorial and conspiratorial rhetoric, with an obsession with foreign interference and Tunisians who would be linked to foreign countries.

He also finds himself in a context where his interlocutors, on a European scale, are putting pressure on Tunisia to curb illegal immigration.  

Then, Kaïs Saïed is the relay and the main instigator of a popular, anti-Black and anti-African racism that has existed for many years.

Within the Tunisian political system, the freedom of racist speech has, for example, been illustrated by deputies who attack colleagues in the Chamber.

There has been a real trivialization of racist speech since the Tunisian revolution of 2011. 

At the time of Ben Ali [president from 1987 to 2011, editor's note], there was racism and xenophobia, but the word was very locked.

The only difference today, and what is unprecedented, is that the first character of the state makes it an openly racist speech, based on the theory of the great replacement.  

Kaïs Saïed combined this security discourse with a discourse with strong identity connotations.

He insists on the defense of "Tunisianity", that is to say a Tunisian purity which would be threatened by Africa, on the idea that there would be a migratory plot.

He is in the fantasy of the "real" Tunisian.

This is not just true for sub-Saharans.

For example, he thinks that homosexuals are not "real" Tunisians. 

What are the main issues behind this political sequence

It is a way of making people forget the social and economic problems of the country.

People need to designate scapegoats.

Former deputies are notably accused of ruining the country, the powerful UGTT union is the subject of strong criticism, and the media which go against what the head of state says are considered to be linked to foreign countries. .

Similarly, he activated this racist and xenophobic imagination to rid himself of responsibility for the social and political crisis for which he is ultimately responsible, his Prime Minister and his ministers having no room for manoeuvre. 

>> To read also: Stuck in an economic crisis, Tunisia on the verge of default

But it's important to note that this isn't just a political stunt, slippage, or temporary talk.

Tunisian diplomacy did nothing to calm things down.

Even at the time of Ben Ali, there were attempts to catch up.

Here, it is a strong line of Kaïs Saïed's policy.

If he no longer gives political, economic or social horizons, he explains daily that the problems come from foreigners.

It has become a fundamental part of his policy.

He is convinced that Tunisia is the victim of a world conspiracy.  

We are not simply in a sleeve effect, in a desire for diversion, but in a political practice well anchored in the presidential logic.

But by doing all this, the president discredits himself more and more.

It still participates in the isolation of Tunisia and in a breakdown of dialogue between Arab countries, Europe, the United States, and Africa. 

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