Tunisian Workers’ Party condemns President Kais Saied’s racist remarks against African migrants

Last week, Tunisian President Kais Saied blamed migrants from Sub-Saharan African countries for causing disturbances in Tunisia and being part of a “plot” to change the country’s demographics

February 27, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch
Anti-racism protest in Tunisia
(Photo: Meshkal TN/Twitter)

The Tunisian Workers’ Party has condemned President Kais Saied’s speech last week in which he blamed migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa for trying to change the country’s demographics. The party accused him of using racism and hatred to divert the people’s attention from his failures in the economic and political spheres, and asked him to apologize. 

On Saturday, February 25, hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets in capital Tunis denouncing Saied’s racist comments. The African Union (AU) also condemned his speech in a statement issued on Friday.  

Saied had made the controversial comments during his speech at the Tunisian National Security Council on February 21. He had said that “the undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic nations.” 

Saied also accused political parties in the country of being involved in a “criminal arrangement” to change the “demographic composition of Tunisia” in return for large sums of money. 

Arguing that such statements can cause real harm to the African population in the country, protestors on Saturday demanded that the president apologize for his comments.

Expressing solidarity with the migrants, some protesters also termed Saied’s statement fascist and claimed that “Tunisia is an African country,” Al-Jazeera reported

The statement issued by the Workers’ Party said that Saied intends to stir up racist, primitive, and hateful feelings so that people forget the real reasons for their plight and the failures of his government.

Tunisia has been facing a protracted economic crisis and is trying to secure a loan from the IMF. The country is also witnessing a political crisis since July 2021 when Saied sacked the elected government and dissolved the parliament, suspending the constitution and ruling the country by decree. Saied’s government has since enacted a new constitution and held a national election, both of which saw negligible popular participation.  

His government has also been accused of following a policy of persecution of all political opponents, with a large number of dissidents being arrested in the last few weeks. 

The Workers’ Party claimed that Saied’s comments against Africans are similar to the tactics used by anti-immigration right-wing groups in Europe and elsewhere. Tunisians and Muslims in Europe also face racist slurs and are blamed for the problems in these countries. The party’s statement claimed that Saied’s speech legitimizes such right-wing statements, and endangers the thousands of Tunisian migrants living and working in different parts of the world. 

The statement also accused the Tunisian government of participating in the anti-migration policies of European countries, which have led to harassment and oppression, and asked for the immediate termination of all such cooperation.