Brussels, 07/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - The EU strongly condemns the assassination of the Tunisian secular opposition politician, Chokri Belaïd, who was a lawyer and member of the national constituent assembly. In their press release, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and Commissioner Stefan Füle, responsible for neighbourhood policy, present their sincere condolences to Belaid's family and to the leaders and members of his party. They trust that the Tunisian authorities will shed all possible light on the assassination, so that those responsible may be held accountable. They say that the growing number of acts of political violence committed by extremist groups, including the “Comités pour la protection de la révolution”, are a threat for the transition process underway. Everything must be done to put an end to action by such violent groups, they say, adding that, in the interest of all Tunisian citizens, the political transition process must be able to pursue its goal in keeping with the law and in a constructive and peaceful spirit of dialogue.
President of European Parliament Martin Schulz unreservedly condemned Chokri Belaid's “brutal assassination” and expressed Parliament's condolences to Belaid's family and to the Tunisian people. MEPs held a one-minute silence on Wednesday to the memory of those who have lost their lives “for Tunisia's freedom”.
Greens/EFA. French MEP Eva Joly, who chairs the development committee, considers that the revolutionary wave (in Tunisia) is being extinguished by financial asphyxia. Reimbursement of the debt each year accounts for six times the health budget, three times the budget for education, and six times that for regional development. And yet, in international law, a debt contracted under a dictatorship - not for the needs and interests of the State but to fortify a despotic regime in order to repress the population fighting it - is described as an “odious debt”. Joly said the fall of the Ben Ali regime should therefore have entailed, if not the immediate cancellation of Tunisia's debt, at least an audit on the origin of those debts. The €7 billion in debt imputed to the dictatorship no doubt both enriched the Ben Ali clan and contributed to cracking down on the population - far from serving to improve the living conditions of Tunisians. Creditors have a great responsibility to shoulder if they ignore the destination of their loans. Today, Joly said, they must show proof of courage and cancel Tunisia's debts so that a sound democracy can be born out of the revolution.
For Joly's colleague and compatriot, Hélène Flautre, applauded the Tunisian president's speech on Wednesday, although he too is challenged in the streets in Tunisia as is the whole coalition allied to the Islamist party. She sees in his remarks the determination to take forward a socio-political model anchored in democratic values and human rights. She goes on to affirm by way of conclusion to Marzouki's speech at the EP that “crying the Islamist wolf in order to better withdraw our support from the democratisation process would be irresponsible. On the contrary, the European Union must spare no effort to support our best hope in the region. Tunisia must be a convincing experience on which all democrats of the region may base themselves”.
European Left Party. Here, too, there was strong condemnation. They said the crime committee against a representative of the Tunisian secular left confirms the threats that exist in Tunisia to the rule of law and democracy. The European Left considers that the government of technocrats proposed by the prime minister is “not what Tunisia needs”. The situation calls for “fair elections where the Left could express itself freely, allowing the Tunisian society to recover its motor role in the future of the country”, it states.
On the spot, in Tunis. Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali has announced a reshuffling of his governmental team so that it will only be composed of “competent” technocrats without partisan links, a close team that will only have the task of managing current affairs pending the next (and still uncertain) general elections. Jebali's speech, which was supposed to calm the vast protests of a population shocked by the first political assassination in the country's recent history, will not be followed up, most of the local political pundits say. Also, the population is each day increasingly exasperated by the wrangling - or “long term manoeuvres” for seizing power, according to accusations by the majority Islamist party, Ennahdha, the political class, including the provisional president of the Republic - with an upsurge in aggression due in particular to the militias of the “Comités pour la protection de la revolution”. It is apparently not certain that the Islamist party will agree to give up the reins of power.
For the main movements of the democratic and secular opposition, the prime minister and the national constituent assembly have lost all legitimacy. Parliament members are being called upon to suspend their participation in the work of the assembly. (FB/transl.jl)