Summary:

On 15 June 2023, two US senators introduced legislation for consideration entitled the Safeguarding Tunisian Democracy Act of 2023, which will seek to shape US aid and foreign policy toward Tunisia around insistence upon a return to democratic norms.

Senator Jim Risch, Republican from Idaho, and Bob Menendez, Democrat from New Jersey, co-authored the bill. Risch is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Menendez is the committee chairman.

The bill calls for an immediate 25% reduction in aid, including security assistance, “until President Saied ends the nationwide state of emergency declared on July 25, 2021.” This reduction would exclude funding to civil society groups. The bill also proposes the creation of the “Tunisia Democracy Support Fund” to be funded at $100 million per year. These funds would be made available when the US government could clearly identify that Tunisia is demonstrably:

• empowering parliament
• restoring judicial independence
• ceasing military trials of civilians
• ceasing arbitrary arrests of journalists

Outlook:  

While some US policy voices have insisted upon stronger linkages between funding and democratic reform in Tunisia, US diplomacy on the ground has continued to take a more nuanced approach.

With counterterrorism priorities in the region continuing to drive US priorities in the region, the US government is not in a position to abandon its relationship with Tunisia at this point. The US has also taken a less direct role in recent policy discussions driven by Italy, France, and the European Union (EU) as irregular migration and regional security issues stemming from the influx of migrants drives both security and economic policy.

Tunisia’s European partners have had to remain more flexible on policy principles than some US and European voices would prefer with more practical implications driving short- and medium-term policies and aid allocations.

If the bill becomes law as introduced, it would send a message to the Tunisian government, but a relatively quiet one in the midst of European and Italian promises of significant financial aid.

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