Tunisia proposes government amid risk of new elections

Prime Minister Fakhfakh submitted list of Cabinet nominees but Ennahda, Parliament's biggest party, has rejected it

Tunisian Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh leaves for a meeting with Tunisian President Kais Saied (not pictured) in Tunis, Tunisia February 15, 2020. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi
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Tunisia's designated Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh proposed a new Cabinet on Saturday but said he would continue coalition negotiations after Ennahda, the biggest party in Parliament, rejected it.

The proposed government must be approved by the deeply fragmented Parliament in two weeks or there will be a new election.

Mr Fakhfakh submitted a list of Cabinet nominees to President Kais Saied, with Nizar Yaich as Finance Minister, Nourredine Erray as Foreign Minister and Imed Hazgui as Defence Minister.

But with the largest parties either opposed to his coalition or unenthusiastic about its composition, he may struggle to gain the parliamentary majority needed for any significant programme.

The moderate Ennahda party, with 53 seats, said it would only join a unity government that brought together parties from across Tunisia’s political spectrum.

“This decision will put the country in a difficult situation,” Mr Fakhfakh said in a speech.

Heart of Tunisia, the second biggest party, with 38 seats, also said it would not back the government after Mr Fakhfakh excluded it from the coalition.

Tunisia faceslong-term economic challenges that threaten to undermine public trust in the young democracy, and which demand political decisions that could be unpopular.

Since the 2011 revolution, unemployment has been high and growth low, while the government has sunk further into debt with big budget deficits that foreign lenders demand it bring under control.

Elections in September and October installed Mr Saied, a political independent, as president, and a parliament in which Ennahda held fewer than a quarter of the seats.

Ennahda’s nominee for prime minister, Habib Jemli, proposed a coalition government that was rejected by Parliament in a confidence vote last month, giving Mr Saied the chance to ask his own candidate, Mr Fakhfakh, to form a Cabinet.

If Mr Fakhfakh’s proposal is also rejected by Parliament next week, a new election must follow within three months.

He had already promised to name a government that would draw only from parties he considered aligned with the goals of the revolution and committed to rooting out corruption.