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Tunisian President Kais Saied raises his fist to bystanders arsenic helium stroll on the avenue Bourguiba successful Tunis, Tunisia, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021. President Kais Saied claimed connected Sunday that immoderate hopeless younker are being paid to effort to permission Tunisia illegally for Europe, saying the extremity is to harm the state from within. (Slim Abid/Tunisian Presidency via AP)

TUNIS – Tunisia's person claimed Sunday that immoderate hopeless youths are being paid to effort to permission Tunisia illegally for Europe, saying the extremity is to harm the state from wrong and wounded its ties with Europe.

President Kais Saied made the remarks during a stroll down the iconic Avenue Bourguiba, the main axis successful the Tunisian superior of Tunis, a week aft firing the premier curate and different apical officials and freezing parliament. He listened to passersby calling retired his sanction and shouting “Tunisia!” but said thing astir his much-awaited adjacent steps.

Many fearfulness Tunisia's fragile ideology is successful information without a wide representation of however the president plans to reconstruct democracy. It is the lone federation to make a ideology aft the Arab Spring uprisings.

Instead, Saied denounced those who exploit migrants, arsenic hundreds of youths permission Tunisia successful the lukewarm play to effort to marque their mode by smugglers' boats to Europe. He claimed that immoderate of his countrymen with governmental motives are paying hopeless younker to marque the trip, saying their volition is to repetition the wide amerciable migration that began aft the Tunisian gyration a decennary ago.

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“There are radical who wounded Tunisia. I inquire myself however they could marque 1,500 youths leave,” helium was heard saying successful a video released by his office.

“They springiness them wealth truthful that they leave. Those radical exploit misery and privation a remake of what happened successful 2011," Saied said. ”They are hurting Tunisia’s relations with Italy, Europe and different countries.”

Saied made the aforesaid assertion earlier Sunday erstwhile helium formally accepted 1.5 cardinal doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccines from Italy, informing against immoderate “political exploitation” of the country's youths.

The president did not marque wide who were utilizing youths to allegedly harm the North African country.

The Tunisian Coast Guard picked up 31 Tunisian youths connected Sunday, a time aft stopping 3 attempted crossings and seizing 5 tiny boats and a ample sum of money. A full of 188 migrants, 56 of whom were Tunisian, were saved, portion 11 different attempts to embark connected the travel to Europe were stopped, according to the Interior Ministry.

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Meanwhile, dozens of migrants, astir of them from Tunisia, reached the Italian land of Sardinia implicit the weekend, the Italian quality bureau ANSA reported.

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Follow each AP stories connected planetary migration astatine https://apnews.com/hub/migration.

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