Tunisia’s President Kais Saied summoned the European Union’s ambassador on Wednesday to protest the “failure to respect diplomatic rules”, according to a brief statement from the presidency that provided no details on the alleged breach in protocol.
Saied went on to slam the envoy over “the use of practices outside of official frameworks recognised by diplomatic customs”.
The statement comes after EU ambassador to Tunisia Giuseppe Perrone met with Noureddine Taboubi, the leader of the north African country’s main trade union.
On Monday, Perrone hailed the role of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), according to the EU’s delegation in Tunis, while Taboubi called for reinforced cooperation between Tunisia and the EU.
The UGTT was part of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize-winning “national dialogue quartet”, and remains an influential counterweight to Saied, who has jailed many of his critics since a sweeping 2021 power grab.
Last week, Taboubi oversaw a union meeting and expressed his support for multiple private sector strikes underway in the inflation-hit country.
He hailed a general strike in the city of Sfax and threatened to call for a national stoppage.
“The organisation is heading towards a general strike to defend the material and social gains of workers in the face of daily difficulties,” he said at the time.
An EU spokesman told AFP that “it is normal and part of diplomats’ functions, wherever they are in the world, to engage with a wide range of interlocutors in their host country”.
That “includes contacts with civil society organisations” the spokesman said.
He also pointed to the 2015 Nobel prize awarded to the quartet.
Tunisian and international rights groups have decried the erosion of rights and freedoms since Saied’s power grab.
Residents have also complained of their reduced purchasing power because of inflation, with food products particularly affected.
Founded in 1946, the UGTT played a leading role in the struggle against French colonial rule, and later resisted autocratic presidents Habib Bourguiba and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
It was also central to the 2011 revolution that toppled Ben Ali and ignited protests across the Arab world.
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© Agence France-Presse
