Algiers granted Tunis a loan of 200 million dollars with a low interest rate, accompanied by a donation of 100 million dollars. This new gesture of solidarity from Algeria is the latest in a series made by the country towards its neighbour. In Tunisia, however, many criticize this rapprochement and wonder what political compensation their country will have to provide.
Thursday, December 22, during his monthly meeting with the Algerian press broadcast on national television, the President Abdelmadjid Tebboune affirmed that his country would not let down Tunisia, which is in the midst of an economic and political crisis and which has been struggling for many months to obtain a loan from the World Bank. Opponents of Kaïs Saïed, the Tunisian president, fear a collapse.
Thus, Algeria has just granted a loan of 200 million dollars, as well as a donation of an additional 100 million to its neighbour. Previously, Algiers insisted on selling electricity and gasoline to Tunisia at preferential rates. She sent him sugar, while many raw materials are missing on the Tunisian market. After the Covid-19 pandemic, Algerian tourists came in large numbers in 2022 to help the tourism sector. Tunisian tourism in crisis.
A rapprochement constrained by necessity
Algiers denies wanting to interfere in Tunisian affairs. ” Let Tunisia solve its problems. We’ll be there if they need us.” explained President Tebboune. But in fact, Tunisia’s foreign policy is changing. Many attribute the recent falling out between Rabat and Tunis the rapprochement of Tunisians with Algiers and the diplomatic influence exercised by Algiers on Tunisia.
This political modification displeases many Tunisians, who criticize “ an alignment of President Saïed on the Algerian positions regarding several international and regional issues, ignoring the principle of neutrality historically adopted by Tunisian diplomacy.
Tunisia must endure, it must please its neighbours, be it Libya or Algeria.
Majid Bouden, Franco-Tunisian lawyer and economist, analyzes the relationship between Algiers and Tunis
For Majid Bouden, Franco-Tunisian lawyer and economist, “ Tunisia has always kept a different orientation from Algeria », in particular by trading mainly with Europe, while Algeria is much more turned to the Brics. However, the economist notes that the country finds itself today ” in total dependence vis-à-vis its neighbours, for not having taken the measure of its economic needs and specificities over the past 30 years. Majid Bouden concludes: “ Tunisia is in a difficult situation, since it is in political chaos, in economic chaos and now in diplomatic chaos. »