DOMESTIC NEWS

• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who had traveled to Tunisia last month to discuss the deal, returned to sign a memorandum of understanding. 
• The agreement, which is not binding, is split into five pillars: macro-economic stability, economy and trade, the green transition, people-to-people contacts, and migration. “This partnership will promote economic growth, jobs and future prospects for Tunisia’s economy, including the transition to sustainable energy,” Rutte wrote on Twitter. “Regarding migration, it contains agreements on disrupting the business model of people smugglers and human traffickers, strengthening border control and improving registration and return. All essential measures for bolstering efforts to stop irregular migration.”
• The agreement is light on details, making no mention of the nine hundred million euros ($1 billion) in macro-financial assistance that the European leaders had previously promised should Tunisia finalize its pending International Monetary Fund loan agreement. Von der Leyen did confirm, however, that the EU will provide Tunisia with more than one hundred million euros ($112 million) for “border management, anti-smuggling, return and addressing root causes” of migration, as well as hundreds of millions more on several infrastructure and development projects.
• Meloni also said that Tunisia will host a conference on July 23 bringing together African heads of state to discuss migration and development. President Kaïs Saïed, she added, will be the “guest of honor at the meeting” as the progenitor of the idea. 

• “It's very clear: A deal has been made with a dictator who's cruel, who's unreliable,” said Dutch MEP Sophie in 't Veld in a hearing today with European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson. “President Saïed is an authoritarian ruler, he's not a good partner, [he's] a dictator who's actually boosted the number of departures.”
• Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, said that the Council's member states should “insist on clear human rights safeguards in any further migration co-operation with Tunisia. . . . The recently reported serious human rights violations against refugees and migrants in Tunisia only make the inclusion of such safeguards more pressing.” Mijatović noted that the agreement “only includes very general language on human rights, and no concrete indication of whether safeguards would be put in place or what those would be.”
• Libyan border guards recently rescued dozens of migrants among the hundreds whom Tunisian authorities had left stranded in the desert without food, water, or shelter. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and other UN experts today called on Tunisian authorities to immediately halt any further deportations to the Tunisian-Libyan border, which, it reminded the government, are prohibited under international law. 
• Saïed, meanwhile, claimed last week that Tunisia has provided migrants with “everything that can be given with unlimited generosity.” He also repeated his conspiracy theory that immigration is part of a plot to “destabilize the country.”

• An appeals court judge ordered the pair released but rejected the defense team’s request for the release of approximately 20 other political prisoners who have been held in the conspiracy case since February. Families of prisoners detained in the case, as well as civil society and political figures, held a rally outside the courthouse that day to demand their release.
• Issa and Akremi are still facing charges in the case and are banned from traveling or “appearing in public places,” according to a court spokesperson.
• Issa, known as the first woman political prisoner in Saïed’s Tunisia, is a prominent leader within the Salvation Front and has led protests against the president since his 2021 power grab. Akremi is a former minister and a co-founder of the Nidaa Tounes party.
• “The first thing I'd like to say is that I can't deny my happiness at being free,” Issa said after being released. “But it's an incomplete happiness. It's a happiness with a lot of pain, because the injustice I suffered is still being suffered by my friends who are still in [prison].”
• Political activist Mohamed Hamdi was also questioned by anti-terrorist authorities in relation to the conspiracy case last week but was not taken into custody.
• With Tunisian authorities continuing to jail dozens of opposition figures for their political activities or opinions, European parliamentarians held a press conference last week to denounce the EU's approach to Tunisia and to call for the release of all detained critics.

• Bouasker said that ISIE will begin preparations in March 2024, with Saïed’s five-year term due to end in October. The ISIE president added that Saïed had affirmed to him that all elections would be held on schedule.
• Before that, ISIE will organize local elections that will eventually lead to the newly created second parliamentary chamber, the National Council of Regions and Districts. Bouasker says that those elections will likely take place in late October or early November of this year, once the authority has finished defining the boundaries of the new local councils.
• Worryingly, Bouasker warned that ISIE could withdraw the accreditation of civil society organizations that “now play a political role or have become political parties.” He also claimed that ISIE no longer has to collaborate with the Independent High Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HAICA) regarding the elections; unlike ISIE, HAICA has been a vocal critic of Saïed’s government’s attacks on freedom of expression and the media.

FROM WASHINGTON

• “This legislation preserves humanitarian and economic assistance for Tunisian civil society, while sharpening President Kais Saied’s choices,” said Senator Bob Menendez, the committee’s chair, who introduced the legislation alongside Ranking Member Senator Jim Risch (R-ID). “He and his government can either end the state of emergency and place Tunisia back on the democratic path that Tunisians have fought a decade for, or he can stand in the way of United States support for the Tunisian people and their government.”
• Risch added, “Tunisia is an important partner and we will continue to support the Tunisian people, but the government must change course or risk further degrading the U.S.-Tunisia relationship.”

ON OUR RADAR

• July 12 - Hamma Hammami, an opponent of President Kaïs Saïed, was re-elected as secretary-general of the Workers' Party, a position he has held since the party's formation in 1986. (TAP)
• July 13 - The parliamentary bureau announced that it will summon Prime Minister Najla Bouden and other ministers to parliament over the coming weeks to answer questions about the government's handling of migration and other issues. (TAP)
• July 15 - Tennis player Ons Jabeur, nicknamed Tunisia’s “Minister of Happiness,” lost in the Wimbledon final. (AP)
• July 14 - Tunisian authorities said that at least 15 migrants were found dead off Tunisia's coast and on its border with Algeria over the course of the week. (AP)
• July 16 - Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar embarked on a five-day trip to the Gulf that includes stops in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. (Facebook)
• July 17 - The International Commission of Jurists called on Tunisian authorities to revoke Decree 54, the notorious cybercrime law, and drop all charges against anyone being prosecuted under it. (ICJ)
• July 17 - Tunisia's Ministry of National Defense received four T-6C training aircraft from the United States at a ceremony attended by U.S. Ambassador Joey Hood. (Reuters)

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