The Tunisian parliament is holding a confidence vote Tuesday on a new prime minister and his proposed government as the North African country faces a deep economic crisis made worse by the coronavirus pandemic and after a conflict-of-interest scandal pushed out the previous officeholder.
If Prime Minister-designate Hichem Mechichi wins the confidence vote, as expected, his government would be the third Tunisia has seen since October and the ninth since the 2011 uprising that toppled the long-time authoritarian regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and triggered the "Arab spring" tidal wave across the region.
Tunisia’s parliament had voted down a previous prime minister-designate earlier this year after marathon debate. Lawmakers eventually approved a replacement candidate, Elyes Fakhfakh, but the latter stepped down as prime minister last month amid anger over his holdings in a waste-processing company that won state contracts.
Mechichi, 46, is a former interior minister and lawyer who studied in Tunisia and France. He has proposed a government with 28 ministers junior ministers.
It also includes the first-ever blind nominee for a ministerial portfolio.
Ahead of the vote, Mechichi said the new government would focus on “social and economic issues and respond to the urgent concerns of Tunisians.”
“The government formation comes at a time of political instability when the people’s patience has reached its limit,” Mechichi told parliament.
“Our priority will be to address the economic and social situation… stop the bleeding of public finances, start talks with lenders and begin reform programmes, including for public companies and subsidies.”
Tunisia’s economy was already struggling when the coronavirus hit, hurting the country’s important tourism sector among others.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, the unemployment rate grew from 15% to 18% in the first half of 2020, and gross domestic product shrank by 21% in the second quarter compared to the same period the year before.
After days of tense negotiations, the Islamist Ennahda Movement, which has the largest parliamentary bloc, announced just hours before the scheduled confidence vote that it would grudgingly vote in favour of the Mechichi government “despite reservations.”
The chairman of Ennahda’s Shura Council, Abdelkarim Harouni, said his party would back Mechichi “given the difficult situation of the country” but would then seek to “develop and reform this government.”
Some other political parties have also promised their support, notably Qalb Tounes, the second largest party in parliament.
Analysts said "Islamist MPs would grant Mechichi their votes even if they do not seem intent on giving him their confidence."
Political scientist Chokri Bahria, from the think tank Jossour, said “it seems clear that the government vote will pass, with a support base that should allow it a few months of stability.”
If parliament rejects Mechichi’s government -- an unlikely outcome -- it could prompt early legislative elections. A narrow majority to back the government could indicate that Mechichi would have to struggle to pass any of the significant reforms seen as necessary by foreign lenders.
Although it was President Kais Saied who proposed Mechichi as prime minister, Tunisian analysts say the president has since dropped his support, underscoring the potential for a widening divide between the presidency and government.
Officials from three parties invited Monday to the presidential palace said Saied asked them to vote against Mechichi’s government and to instead continue with a caretaker government. His move seems to have backfired and the president clearly over-reached when he thought he could control the government formation process beyond his limited constitutional prerogatives.
In the deeply-divided parliament, many lawmakers were unhappy that Mechichi bypassed the major political factions in building a technocratic cabinet. They seem willing now to give him a chance to manage the country's socio-economic priorities.
The presidential over-reach has ironically brought Mechichi closer to some of the parliamentary blocs, including that of Ennahda, which now hope to negotiate with the likely-to-be confirmed prime minister some adjustments in the cabinet lineup.
While previous bouts of political discord in Tunisia have focused on the split between secularists and Islamists, or over economic reforms, the current tensions seem more rooted in the division of powers between president and the prime minister and between the executive branch and parliament.
Saied, a political independent who won the presidency in a landslide last year, has said he wants to amend the political system. His failed management of the latest government formation episode could mean a limited capacity to win the support of the parliament or the prime minister in any major reform drive.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
