Kais Saied: Why Tunisia's president picked on sub-Saharan African migrants

Kais Saied: Why Tunisia's president picked on sub-Saharan African migrants

When something goes wrong, blame immigrants or racial or ethnic minorities.

It is a tried-and-true strategy employed by populist politicians or authoritarian dictators to win elections or boost dwindling popularity.

The most plausible reason for Tunisian President Kais Saied's outburst against sub-Saharan African migrants in his nation in February appears to be this kind of populism.

Mr. Saied made the remarkable claim that these individuals were a part of a plot to alter the demographics of the North African nation, which has a predominately Arab-Muslim culture.

That is a risky strategy that frequently results in violence, as history amply proves. And in Tunisia, that is exactly what took place.

Black African migrants responded to the remarks.felt the full impact of it. Some people were hesitant to leave their homes for fear of sporadic violence or verbal harassment.

A student from southern Africa who has been studying in Tunisia for the past five years gave a terrifying image of how Mr. Saied's words affected black Africans in Tunisia.

She stated on the BBC Africa Daily podcast that some people had their homes set on fire while others were beaten up and that she no longer felt safe in the nation.

As a result, numerous black Africans went to their embassies to arrange for return.

The Tunisian administration has defended the president, asserting that his statement was directed at individuals who had entered the country without authorization rather than those who were already there.legally.

In Tunisia, which has a population of 12 million, there are 20,000 sub-Saharan migrants, according to estimates.

Kenza ben Azouz, a Tunisian rights expert, however, stated to the BBC: "There is no question of right or wrong here. Being black in this country is the subject ".

She continued by saying that because of the colour of their skin, black Tunisians, who make up around 10% to 15% of the nation's population, face discrimination. A BBC News Arabic study conducted last year identified this problem.

It is not a new issue for sub-Saharan Africans to go to North Africa in an effort to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. Between the nations of North Africa and Europe, it has long been a point of conflict.

The wording used this time, though, is novel.Mr. Saied used to speak on the subject. At a time when Mr. Saied's problems have only become worse, it appeared to be intended to sow fear and nationalist fervour and to unite the populace around some sort of cause.

Tunisia's economy is in terrible health. As President Zine el-Abedine Ben Ali was ousted in 2011, the country experienced years of political unrest that it has never fully recovered from.

Terrorist acts had a significant negative impact on tourism, which was later further exacerbated by the covidian outbreak and the subsequent war in Ukraine.

In politics, things are also not going the president's way.

After he dismissed the cabinet and disbanded the legislature in the summer of 2021 and unveiled a road map that he said would put the country on a His plan has seen one painful failure after another, failing to put the nation on the path to stability and prosperity.

He personally selected a group to write a new constitution, but after he made significant revisions to the document they had submitted, the committee withdrew its support. He successfully consolidated all the power in the presidency's hands while weakening the legislative and judicial branches.

Only a small fraction of the nine million electorate participated in the online public input on the draught at that point.

Almost 70% of those eligible to vote boycotted the poll in its entirety.

The legislative elections held in late last year were the next phase, and his idea did not perform any better there.

A record-low 11% of voters showed up, which led to The people, according to Mr. Saied, did not want a parliament.

The president has effectively positioned himself as the nation's savior—the one man free of politics and the desire for power—through his frequent outbursts against the media and the political class, accusing them of corruption and power abuse.

It therefore seems like a useful diversion to suggest that sub-Saharan migrants pose an existential threat to Tunisia.

But, the president is not solely responsible for the racist language.

Think about the Tunisian Nationalist Party, a minor political group that backs Mr. Saied. It has been pushing racist ideologies that are startlingly similar to those of far-right, anti-immigrant parties in Europe, and it has been advocating for the expulsion of black migrants.

The Using Israel and the Palestinians as examples, the party asserts that sub-Saharan Africans are settlers who will eventually drive out the Tunisians from their land. Using the nationalist card has become a practical strategy throughout North Africa and the Middle East to combat the omnipresence of political Islam, which is essentially a transnational ideology and whose supporters in Tunisia still represent Mr. Saied's strongest political rivals.

When a crisis strikes, nationalism can either be benign or stray into peril. Mr. Saied has frequently called his political rivals "traitors" in his public statements.

Tunisia is hardly the only country that has become polarised.

Mr. Saied appears to have borrowed strategies from the Egyptian government of President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to weaken the grip of the impact of Muslim doctrine on political discourse and societ