In Tunisia, the first female premier to stem the Islamists, but the leftist press turns up their noses
In a truly momentous move, Tunisian President Kais Saied has appointed a female premier for the first time in the country's history. This is 63-year-old Najla Bouden, specialized in geosciences and lecturer at the National School of Engineering in Tunis.
It is also worth noting that this is the first female prime minister not only in Tunisia, but also in any Arab nation. And this obviously makes an impression, recalling what is happening to women in Afghanistan recently reconquered by the Taliban.
Yet the leftist press did not like the appointment. The president is accused of authoritarianism because he has provisionally suspended the Constitution while waiting for the political situation to become clearer.
However, it happens that Kais Saied, supported by the armed forces and the trade unions, acted, even before the appointment of Najla Bouden, to stem the growing influence of the Ennahda party in Tunisian politics.
The leftist press officially classifies this party as "moderate Islamic". However, his closeness to the Muslim Brotherhood, already very influential in Erdogan's Turkey, Qatar and the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip, is well known.
In short, the leftist press – and I am not referring only to the Italian one – always adopts a position of notable squint in these cases. Refusing to understand that the so-called "moderate" Muslims do not at all constitute a guarantee for the democratic institutions of the countries in which they are active.
And it is worth remembering the harsh criticism leveled at the Egyptian military when they blocked the rise of former President Morsi, himself a leading exponent of the "Brotherhood", fearing that his government would lead the largest country in the Arab world towards a drift fundamentalist.
Returning to Tunisia, the leftist press interprets the latest events as an attempt by Kais Saied to create a dictatorship. In this sense, we are told, the appointment of the first female prime minister would only be a red herring, since the president intends to keep all the levers of power by making Najla Bouden a sort of "fake prime minister".
And all this without even leaving the time for the new prime minister to demonstrate her actual abilities by seeing her at work in the daily action of government.
A truly strange attitude, when one remembers the (misplaced) enthusiasm of numerous Western governments towards the so-called "Arab Spring". Starting with the administration of Barack Obama dominated, in matters of foreign policy, by the then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Last but not least , the now former German Chancellor Angela Merkel also intervened in the Tunisian events, who considered it appropriate to remind Kais Saied of the "need" for Tunisia to return to being a true parliamentary democracy, re-establishing dialogue with all political actors local (and, therefore, also with the Muslim Brotherhood).
One wonders, however, in the name of who speaks Angela Merkel. Wouldn't such an intervention, assuming it be legitimate, be the responsibility of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen? Which, on the other hand, has remained silent?
So the Tunisian case demonstrates at least two things. First, the permanent flirtation of the West with political forces to which it should not grant any credit.
And, secondly, it brings out once again who really commands in Brussels, where the Commission and the Council count as the two of cups.
It is easy to conclude that the real "fake" figure is by no means the first female prime minister of Tunisia, but the president of the European Commission, who has the eternal Merkel dictate her foreign policy line.
The post Tunisia is the first female premier to stem the Islamists, but the leftist press turns up its nose appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/in-tunisia-primo-premier-donna-per-arginare-gli-islamisti-ma-la-stampa-di-sinistra-storce-il-naso/ on Sat, 02 Oct 2021 03:48:00 +0000.