Tunisian President Kais Saied took a page from the white-nationalist playbook this week, espousing xenophobic and conspiratorial views on migration as his government rounded up sub- Saharan African migrants, leaving black residents of Tunisia worried about their safety.
Saied, who has consolidated power since his election in 2019, has eroded the North African country’s democratic institutions. He is known for promoting conspiracy theories to justify tightening his grip on power.
The latest: his allegation of a years-long plot to bring immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa to the country “to transform the demographic composition of Tunisia”.
These “successive waves of irregular migration” are meant to change the image of Tunisia to that of “only
