World News | Tunisia Orders Top European Trade Union Official Expelled

Tunis (Tunisia), Feb 19 (AP) Tunisian president Kais Saied ordered Europe's top trade union official to leave the country after she addressed protesters at a demonstration organised by the North African country's influential labour union.

Authorities in Tunis accused Esther Lynch, the Irish general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, of making statements that “interfered with Tunisian internal affairs” during a protest against the country's increasingly authoritarian president in the port city of Sfax on Saturday.

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The demonstration was organised by Tunisia's General Labour Union, or UGTT, to protest a crackdown on the president's political opponents and his critics in the media, judiciary, business community and trade unions. Lynch in her address to protesters demanded the release of union leader Anis Kaabi, who was arrested by security forces last month.

She called on the Tunisian government to negotiate with the UGTT leadership and help improve the economy that has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy amid political instability that deepened after a disastrous parliamentary election last month in which only 11 per cent of voters cast their ballots.

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“By orders of the president, Tunisian authorities ordered Esther Lynch to leave the country within 24 hours, following statements made during the UGTT-led demonstration that interfered with Tunisian internal affairs,” said a statement by the Tunisian presidency that was posted on Twitter late Saturday.

The European Trade Union Confederation has not commented on the expulsion order.

Tunisia is going through a major economic crisis, with rising inflation and unemployment. In recent months, Tunisians have been hit with soaring food prices and shortages of fuel and basic staples like sugar and vegetable oil.

Saied won the presidency in a 2019 landslide on a promise to improve the country's economy. Instead, the president appears determined to upend the country's political system — threatening Tunisia's democracy once seen as a model for the Arab world and sending the economy toward a tailspin.

In December, the International Monetary Fund froze an agreement on a USD 1.9 billion loan for Tunisia — funds the deeply indebted government needs to pay UGTT-represented public sector salaries and fill budget gaps aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from Russia's war in Ukraine. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)