Politics

Tunisia-Issam Chebbi: The UGTT is innocent and its general strike is now legitimate

Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the Tunisian Islamist Ennahda party, checks his ballot behind a booth at a polling station in Ben Arous near the capital Tunis on May 6, 2018, as the country votes in the first free municipal elections since the 2011 revolution. - Tunisians head to the polls on May 6 in what is seen as another milestone on the road to democracy in the birthplace of the Arab Spring, despite muted interest in the poll as struggles with corruption and poverty continue.Though parliamentary and presidential votes have taken place since the fall of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, municipal polls have been delayed four times due to logistic, administrative and political deadlocks. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)

Al Joumhouri secretary-general Issam Chebbi believes the general strike by the UGTT to be “legitimate” clarifying that the experts who hold the union accountable for the decline of the economic situation and the disruption of negotiations simply desire to cancel his role.

Chebbi emphasised in a statement made to a private radio, that the UGTT is innocent of all charges and that negotiations with the IMF had been paused before the strike because there was no democracy and a strong administration able to implement reforms. “The President of the Republic, Kaïs Saied assumes responsibility for the disruption of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and the degeneration of the purchasing power of Tunisian citizens” .