The Tunisian parliament debated on Tuesday a text which would officially ask France to apologize to Tunisia for the crimes committed " during and after colonization ", presented by a small Islamist party, and which has little chance of succeed.
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The motion is presented by the Al Karama coalition, an Islamo-nationalist party with 19 elected members out of 217 deputies, who made an electoral promise during the legislative elections in October 2019. The text proposes to demand an apology from the French state for " assassinations ", " rapes ", " forced exiles of opponents ", " looting of natural resources ", and support for the dictatorship. This concerns " all crimes committed since 1881 ", the date of the start of the protectorate, including the support given to the regime of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali when it was hard-pressed in early 2011. Karama is in opposition, facing the Islamist-inspired party Ennahdha, the main force of Parliament.
An elected official from Al Karama, Ridha Jaouadi, estimated that " the cultural centers of the French occupation are more dangerous than the military bases ", accusing them of carrying out " a cultural invasion which destroys the morals and the values " of the Tunisians . " They call for homosexual marriage ," accused this former imam sacked in 2015 from the main mosque in Sfax (east) by Tunisian authorities who had described him as an extremist and then accused of " collecting money " without authorization. " This is not a request for reconsideration from Tunisia, but rather a list of political settlements ," accused the anti-Islamist elected Abir Moussi.
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The Parliament being extremely divided, it is unlikely that the text, which was not preceded by any debate in committee or preparatory work, will obtain the 109 votes necessary. " The risk is that a subject of such great importance becomes a tool for political tactics ," lamented the historian and politician Adnen Manser.