Tunisia-France: Juppe Urges Young Tunisians to Have Faith in their Country
Former French Prime Minister and front runner in leading UMP opposition party’s nomination for the 2017 presidential elections, Alain Juppé, Monday called on young Tunisians to believe in themselves and have faith in their country which is confronted with several challenges prompting many youth to join terrorist groups.
“Be confident in yourselves, have faith in Tunisia, get through,” he told youths.
Juppé was speaking during a lecture at the Graduate Institute of Business Studies in Carthage (IHEC) on “Mediterranean: Challenges to Meet Together” on the last day of his two-day visit to Tunisia.
Juppé who dubbed himself as the “candidate of youth” told the dozens of young attendees that despite the difficulties Tunisia can still look forward and overcome economic challenges that have smashed the hopes of millions of young Tunisians who believed the 2011 revolution would bring a solution to the social and economic challenges.
Despite the multiple challenges, democracy in Tunisia is today strong enough, he said, referring to the transition from autocratic regime to democratic path embraced by millions of Tunisian despite permanent Islamist threats.
For him, “Tunisia is a country resolutely oriented toward the future, as well as a generous and welcoming country that will patiently meet the challenges it faces and manage to preserve its identity, its characteristics and its excellence.”
The French ex-Premier insisted that the future of young democracies hinges on “good governance and efforts by authorities to involve citizens in the future choices of their country.”
Juppe who visited Tunis to canvass support for his candidacy indicated that the 30,000 French living in Tunisia and the 600,000 Tunisians living in France, among whom 420,000 with dual nationality, constitute a bridge between Tunisia and France.
Touching on French Government’s controversial plan to revoke French nationality from citizens with dual nationality, he assured that the plan only concerns French citizens involved in terrorist crimes against France.
The French politician who also indicated he understood the concerns of Tunisians about the security situation in Libya which has become a launch pad of terrorist attacks in Tunisia, said that a military intervention in Libya will not be the solution and that the solution has to be discussed with regional countries in conjunction with western allies.
