2023-05-01 18:34:00
The leader of the UGTT, Tunisia’s main trade union organization Noureddine Taboubi on Monday questioned the negotiations underway for months between the government and the IMF for a new loan intended to bail out the coffers of an over-indebted country.
During his speech in Tunis, more than 2,000 activists marched in Sfax (center-east), the country’s second city, with placards denouncing “an IMF government” and saying “no to colonization”.
“We approve of the position of President” Kais Saied who rejected the “dictates” of the IMF at the beginning of April for the granting of a loan of nearly 2 billion dollars, declared Mr. Taboubi.
Despite an agreement in principle from the Fund on this loan in mid-October, the talks have stalled for months, for lack of a firm commitment from President Saied to restructure a hundred heavily loss-making public groups and lift subsidies on various basic products.
According to Mr. Taboubi, Mr. Saied “has aligned himself” with the UGTT, opposed to any sale of public companies and the lifting of subsidies. “This makes us wonder about the value of negotiations between the government and the IMF,” he said.
The measures recommended by the IMF will “further impoverish the Tunisian people” who are facing high inflation (more than 10%) and high unemployment (more than 15%), according to Mr. Taboubi.
In a virulent press release a few days ago, the UGTT noted “glaring differences” between Kais Saied and his government, accusing Prime Minister Najla Bouden of “secretly” negotiating with the IMF a program “known to a small team , accustomed to adopting ready-made recipes”.
The union had castigated “international donors who seek such opportunities to dictate their terms and dominate the economies of countries in crisis like Tunisia”.
In his speech on Monday, Mr. Taboubi also demanded the release of several trade unionists arrested in recent weeks and denounced “an abusive attack” on trade union rights.
He cited two of them, the last of whom was imprisoned on Friday for a post on social networks, considered to be harmful to the person of Kais Saied.
“The imprisonment of UGTT activists, the falsification of files by certain ministers who oppose the trade union movement, the launching of campaigns of denigration and contempt and the harassment of trade unionists do not scare us! “, he said.
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