Sarkozy concludes visit to Tunisia

30/04/2008

French President Nicolas Sarkozy signed new business partnerships and promoted the Mediterranean Union plan during his visit this week to Tunisia, but did not address human rights issues with President Ben Ali's government.

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 30/04/08

[Getty Images] French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to Tunisia resulted in a number of agreements on economic and political co-operation.

After signing new economic agreements, participating in a huge Tunis parade and speaking with students and business leaders on issues ranging from terrorism to his Mediterranean Union proposal, French President Nicolas Sarkozy concluded his three-day state visit to Tunisia on Wednesday (April 30th).

On Monday, Sarkozy signed accords on civil nuclear energy, immigration and economic development with his Tunisian counterpart Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Under the co-operation agreements, France agrees to back the rehabilitation of the Tunisian economy, support investments and encourage scientific and technological exchanges.

The 20-year nuclear agreement is similar to those France signed with Algeria, Morocco and Libya earlier this year. In other deals, French engineering conglomerate Alstom will build a 700-megawatt conventional power station valued at $560 million and state airline Tunisair will buy 19 planes from Airbus for $1.5 billion.

France is Tunisia's biggest trade partner, before Algeria and Morocco. Its enterprises are the biggest foreign employer of labour in Tunisia, providing more than 100,000 job opportunities. In addition, trade exchange between the two countries increased 14% in the last year.

Economic issues dominated Sarkozy's visit. Indeed, he was accompanied by more than 100 French businessmen as well as 8 ministers. Many observers in Tunisia, however, wanted the French president to pressure President Ben Ali's government on human rights.

"During his visit to Tunisia last July, Sarkozy ignored Tunisian civil society. We hope that this will not happen this time. We also hope that the visit will not have a purely economic nature," Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights President Mokhtar Trifi said in a statement to French daily Le Monde on April 26th.

Also last week, opposition Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) former leader Nejib Chebbi said he planned to take advantage of Sarkozy's visit "to highlight the harassments we are subjected to in Tunisia". On the eve of the French President's arrival in Tunis, two party members announced they would launch an open hunger strike to protest what they claim is an attempt "to strangle the party financially".

The French president ignored the issue Monday at a forum attended by 500 French and Tunisian business people. "I will not give lectures on human rights," Sarkozy said, adding that "Tunisia has achieved progress in the realm of personal freedoms."

Sarkozy also praised President Ben Ali's efforts to combat terrorism, which he called "the real enemy of democracy".

"The fight which is taking place here is important for France, because if tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, a Taliban-style rule is established in one of your countries in North Africa, who could then believe that Europe and France will feel safe?" he asked.

Addressing the merits of the Mediterranean Union project he proposed last year, Sarkozy told the Tunisian business leaders that a new French enterprise is created every five days in Tunisia. He stressed that European and Mediterranean countries should collaborate, rather than "oppose" and "exclude" each other.

"If it becomes reality, the Union for the Mediterranean will change the world," President Sarkozy told students at the National Institute of Applied Science and Technology in Tunis on Wednesday. He added that the union will reduce unemployment and stimulate economic growth in both Tunisia and France.

More than 20,000 people turned for a parade Monday night in Tunis to see Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni.