(Tunis) Tunisian Interior Minister Hichem Mechichi was appointed Saturday evening by President Kais Saied as head of the future government, which is due to train his team within a month in a tense political context.
France Media Agency
"After examining and reading all the situations (in the country), I charge you to form the government", said the Tunisian president to Mr. Mechichi at the Carthage palace, in a video posted on the official page of the Presidency of the Republic.
Jurist by training, Hichem Mechichi, 30 years, was not proposed by the parties politicians in power.
Minister of the Interior in the outgoing government of Elyes Fakhfakh, he was President Saied's first adviser in charge of legal affairs.
This former chief of staff of the Ministries of Transport, Social Affairs and Health will have one month to form his government.
He will then have to gain the confidence of Parliament by an absolute majority by September. Otherwise, the Assembly will be dissolved and new parliamentary elections will be held.
Tunisia, where the last legislative election took place in October, would then have 63 days to organize this vote anticipated, either before end 2020.
In a statement issued by the Presidency of the Republic Mr. Mechichi considered that his new post represents a "great responsibility and a great challenge, especially in the current circumstances of our country" promising to "work to form a government which will meet all the expectations of Tunisians ".
Its designation occurs on the day that Tunisia celebrates 63 th anniversary of the Republic, a day which marks the abolition of the monarchical regime and the proclamation of the Republic in 1957.
This day also commemorates the first anniversary of the death of Béji Caid Essebsi, the first Tunisian president elected by universal suffrage in 1957, who died a few month of the end of his mandate at the age of 92 years.
"Skillful"
Mr. Mechichi will succeed Elyes Fakhfakh who, weakened by a conflict of interest affair, resigned under pressure from the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, which had filed a motion of no confidence against him.
The new prime minister has the difficult task of mustering a majority in a deeply fragmented parliament.
Elected in October, the Assembly of People's Representatives (ARP) is made up of a myriad of parties, some of which are at loggerheads. This is particularly the case of the Free Destourien Party (PDL) of anti-Islamist Abir Moussi (07 deputies on 92) and of the Ennahdha party, the first force in parliament (54 deputies).
During the last two weeks, plenaries were not held because of the violent exchanges between these two blocks in particular, and a sit-in of the PDL demanding the departure of the president of the parliament Rached Ghannouchi, also head of 'Ennahdha.
The latter is the subject of a motion to withdraw confidence which will be examined during a plenary session on 25 July.
On Monday, President Saied warned of a state of "chaos" in parliament and a "blocking of the work of a constitutional institution".
"Unfortunately the ARP does not work normally! He said Monday during a meeting at the Carthage Palace with Mr. Ghannouchi. This deadlock in Parliament "will not be able to continue [...] I will not stand idly by in the face of the collapse of state institutions," he added.
"The current context requires the presence of a clever, convincing, knowledgeable head of government and above all less committed to belonging and being attached to one of the most influential parties on the political scene", wrote Le Quotidien on Saturday.
In a statement released on Friday, the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights estimated that successive governments have failed to establish "a development policy capable of reducing unemployment, regional imbalances , financial inflation and trade deficits ".
Tunisia, which has successfully taken drastic measures to contain the coronavirus epidemic, is hit hard by the economic and social fallout from the border closures.
Thousands of jobs are in the hot seat as the population is already exasperated by the lack of prospects in a country where the official unemployment rate exceeds 30% in some regions and among young people.
In recent weeks, the south of the country has registered protests against unemployment and a policy of marginalization.
