TUNIS: Tunisia’s Prime Minister-designate Hichem Mechichi on Tuesday unveiled the country’s second government in six months. He now has the difficult task of receiving approval from legislators, who are furious about how the administration was formed.
Mechichi had previously declared his intention to form a Cabinet dominated by independent technocrats able to “present urgent solutions” for a country with sluggish economy, battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
The former Interior Minister’s decision to bypass consultations with political factions angered, among others, the powerful Ennahdha party, which has demanded a “political” government reflecting the balance of forces in Parliament.
However, Ennahdha and other parties have also spoken of the need to approve the government to avoid dragging the already crisis-hit country into disruptive early elections. Mechichi told reporters he had decided to form a new Cabinet composed of “independent expertise”, with only a few outgoing ministers included in the lineup.
Under plans to revamp the government and revive the economy, Mechichi gathered the ministries of finance, investment and economy into a single department led by liberal economist Ali Kooli, CEO of Arab Banking Corporation (ABC Bank) in Tunisia. Mechichi needs to win a confidence vote in Parliament in the next few days or face the dissolution of Parliament by the President and another election, deepening instability in the country.