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The Francophonie summit was due to take place in Djerba in November, but during a meeting of the Permanent Council of the International Organization of La Francophonie on Tuesday, October 12, representatives of the 88 member and associate states agreed to postpone the deadline in the fall of 2022. The decision, precipitated by the political situation in Tunisia, still has to be ratified by the ministers but that seems to make few doubts.
It is ” for the sake of cohesion and solidarity “That the States of the International Organization of La Francophonie have agreed to propose this postponement of one year, explains the press release published Tuesday evening on the OIF website. The goal ? To be able to organize it ” in the most optimal conditions “. Implied: this is not currently the case in Tunisia.
Since Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed assumed full powers a little over two months ago, before suspending Parliament and then certain chapters of the Constitution last month, the holding of the Francophonie summit in the country became more and more problematic.
Difficult to organize a consensual and peaceful summit while thousands of people are still demonstrating against what they call a “ Rebellion. Former President Moncef Marzouki even personally called for a boycott of this summit. Several member countries of the OIF have thus expressed their embarrassment to the secretary general of the organization.
Saturday, Louise Mushikiwabo had traveled to Tunisia to hear President Kaïs Saïed reiterate his willingness to host the summit and present the preparations underway. Objective: to avoid a humiliating cancellation. Tunisian organizers then assured that around twenty States had confirmed their arrival. Except that there was no specific place or program for this summit scheduled for November 20 and 21.
The tone was meant to be reassuring, but the Tunisian head of state had released a little sentence. Kaïs Saïed evoked those who “ went to Paris and tried to derail the summit of La Francophonie. Was he talking about political opponents? From foreign partners?
A week before, he had spoken with his French counterpart. Emmanuel Macron then, according to the Elysee press release, recalled his attachment to dialogue and mentioned “ the institutional calendar expected by the international community “. A sufficiently vague formulation to refer to the calendar of internal political reforms. But also, after all, at an international summit like that of the OIF.