generalspeaking

Al Arabiya With Agencies 

Tunisia’s Prime Minister-designate Ali Larayedh unveiled a proposed new coalition government on Friday, just hours ahead of his deadline, composed of people from the parties of the outgoing alliance and independents.

“I presented to the president the dossier containing the list of the new government and a summary of the government program,” Larayedh announced on television, just hours before a midnight deadline.
The new government is led by the Islamist Ennahda party, backed by two secular parties, the centre-left Ettakatol and thesecular Congress for the Republic led by President Moncef Marzouki - the same parties that were in the previous cabinet.

Ennahda’s coalition partners - the centre-left Ettakatol and President Moncef Marzouki’s secular Congress for the Republic(CPR) - are the same parties as in the previous government.

“Our country needs national unity,” Larayedh told a news conference, saying his government would not last beyond this year, with elections likely to be held in October or November.

“You must be patient. The road to democracy is long,” said Larayedh, interior minister in the outgoing cabinet, which had struggled with Islamist-secular tensions as well as frequent popular unrest over unemployment and rising living costs.

Ennahda has ceded control of several key ministries to independents in the new cabinet, with career diplomat Othman Jarandi named as foreign minister, Lotfi Ben Jedou interior minister and Rachid Sabbagh defense minister.

Elyess Fakhfakh of Ettakatol, an economist, keeps the finance portfolio.

Jarandi, a former ambassador to the United Nations, has strong ties with international bodies and the West.

Ben Jedou and Sabbagh are both judges. Ben Jedou took part in an investigation into the killing of dozens of young men during the “Jasmine Revolution” that toppled Ben Ali and inspired revolts against autocrats around the Arab world.

Twelve members of Jebali’s Cabinet stay on, including Agriculture Minister Mohamed Ben Salem and Human Rights Minister Samir Dilou, who are both members of Ennahda, as well as Culture Minister Mehdi Mabrouk, an independent.

Larayedh tried but failed to induce other secular parties to join the coalition, one of whose main tasks will be to oversee polls in a transition process jolted by Belaid’s assassination.

His killing, which the authorities blame on strict Salafi Muslim militants, provoked three days of sometimes violent protests and exposed deep rifts between ruling Islamists elected to power and liberals who fear the loss of hard-won freedoms.

Ennahda’s leader Rached Ghannouchi told Reuters last month that any stable government in Tunisia must be a coalition between moderate Islamists and moderate secularists.

Ennahda, Ettakatol and CPR have governed in coalition since December 2011, following Tunisia’s first free election for a217-seat National Constituent Assembly, which is supposed to draft a new constitution for the post-Ben Ali era.

Disputes over the role of Islam in politics and society have delayed a document which must be approved before the election.

Political turmoil in recent weeks has set back talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $1.78 billion loan and has prompted Standard and Poor’s lower its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit rating of Tunisia.

The government raised most fuel prices this week as part of a drive to cut subsidies and reduce a forecast 2013 budget deficit of 6 percent of Gross Domestic Product.

The central bank warned last week that continuing political crisis would harm the economy, which relies heavily on tourism.

Tunisia’s transition has been calmer than those in Egypt and Libya, but the struggle over Islam’s place in government and society has emerged as a particularly divisive political issue.

Salafis, not all of whom espouse violence, want a broader role for religion in Tunisia, alarming secular elites who fear they will seek to impose their strict views at the expense of individual freedoms, women’s rights and democracy.

Salafis prevented several concerts and plays from taking place in Tunisian cities last year, saying they violated Islamic principles. Salafis also ransacked the U.S. Embassy in September during worldwide Muslim protests over an Internet video.

Secular groups have accused the Ennahda-led government of a lax response to such attacks.

After Belaid’s death, Jebali tried to restore calm by proposing an apolitical cabinet of technocrats to organize parliamentary election, but resigned after opposition from within his own Ennahda party scuppered the plan.

Labels: Crisis Politics, Democracy, Islamism, Revolution, Tunisia

posted by Pieface @ Friday, March 08, 2013