Tunis, February 19. Tunisia’s President Kais Said declared European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) General Secretary Esther Lynch “persona non grata”, and gave her 24 hours to leave the country, after participating this Saturday at an anti-government demonstration called by the UGTT union.
“He made statements that included blatant interference in the internal affairs of Tunisia,” the Tunisian presidency said in a statement posted on social media.
Thousands of supporters of the powerful Tunisian union, the UGTT, marched this Saturday in various regions of the country, outside the capital, against the economic policy and the “attacks on freedoms” of the Tunisian president, who governs with full powers.
“No hay forma de permitir que ninguna parte del exterior attacks la soberanía del Estado y la soberanía de su pueblo”, indicated the note of the Presidency in the misma line that this week Said reacted to the international criticisms for the campaign of arrests of destacadas personalidades Last weekend.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Parliament this week expressed concern over the growing persecution of opponents and called for an immediate end to the military trials against civilians that are on the rise in the country. .
For the trade union centre, one of the main players in the 2011 revolution, the call to demonstrate this Saturday meant taking the pulse of the streets, and it recorded its most popular demonstration in Sfax, the second city of Tunis, where Lynch He participated. .
The powerful union, which initially backed the president’s intervention when he took full power on July 25, 2021 to ‘rectify’ the transition, has hardened its tone to call for protests after the arrest this month of one of its managers, accused of causing financial loss by calling a strike.
“The UGTT cannot leave the country in the hands of a single decision maker and a Constitution – approved last year in a referendum with nearly 70% abstention – drafted solely by the President of the Republic to build a new dictatorship”, condemned the secretary. .general deputy of the union, Taher Barbari, this Saturday.
The central union anticipates a calendar of moves in all countries that will culminate with a multitudinous march on March 11 in the capital tune against the public receipts anticipated in the package of reforms to obtain the credit of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of 1,900 millions of dollars. ECE
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