Tunisia’s decision to summon France’s ambassador over critical coverage on French public television is the latest reflection of the scale of the Algerianization of Tunisia’s foreign policy, a process that was launched by President Kais Saied, who turned his country into an Algerian proxy.
A Tunisian foreign ministry’s statement accused French public broadcasters of spreading hateful and false content about the state, demanding Paris rein in its media.
Critics noted the language echoed years of similar Algerian complaints against French news outlets, with Tunisian media, such as Tunisie Focus, saying it read as though it had been copied from an Algerian presidential communiqué.
Former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki, reached by French paper Le Point after appearing in the France 24 segment that triggered the summons, dismissed the statement by Tunisia’s foreign ministry as theater and said the current climate felt more repressive than under Ben Ali.
The episode comes as Tunisia grapples with a severe energy crisis, with roughly 62% of its electricity supply dependent on Algerian gas, a dependency observers say has coincided with Tunis abandoning its traditional neutrality to align with Algiers on regional issues, including the Sahara issue, and to warm toward Moscow, Tehran and Beijing.
For Algeria’s part, the reflex to blame the Élysée or Quai d’Orsay for unflattering French press coverage has been a fixture of its foreign policy for decades, often aimed more at shaping domestic opinion than at any real diplomatic dispute.
Marzouki argued Tunis’s own economic strain- chronic water and power cuts feeding public anger – leaves Kais Saied’s government searching for external scapegoats rather than addressing the underlying failures.
