ANSD : Tunisian president accepts new ministers, easing high-level standoff

THU 28 - 11 - 2024

Date: Nov 9, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Tunisian president accepts new ministers, easing high-level standoff

_Reuters
TUNIS: Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said Thursday he was ready to swear in ten new ministers named in a reshuffle that he had originally rejected, easing a high-level political standoff that has alarmed donors.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed announced the reshuffle on Monday – but Essebsi quickly rejected it, saying he had not been consulted.

On Thursday, he relented and told reporters he would swear in the ministers if parliament approved the changes. "I have no problem with the prime minister but I dislike the handling of his reshuffle," he said.

The dispute highlighted tensions at the highest levels of Tunisian politics that have been exacerbated by an economic crisis.

Chahed leads a government dominated by the ruling Nidaa Tounes party and backed by moderate Islamists.

But the prime minister has been caught up in a dispute with the leader of the party, Hafedh Caid Essebsi, who is also the president's son and has accused Chahed of failing to tackle high inflation, unemployment and other problems.

The political wrangling has alarmed donors which have kept the country afloat with loans granted in exchange for a promise of reforms such as cutting a bloated public service.

Tunisia's economy has been in crisis since the North African state kicked off the Muslim World's "Arab Spring" uprisings by toppling autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

Chahed's reshuffle announced Monday is the 10th major cabinet overhaul since then. He said it would "make the work of government more effective and to put an end to the political and economic crisis".

Chahed kept the leadership of finance, foreign and the interior ministries unchanged.

He named Jewish businessman Rene Trabelsi as minister of tourism in the Muslim Arab country, just the third member of the small minority to enter the cabinet since Tunisia's independence in 1956.

A former foreign minister under Ben Ali, Kamel Morjan, was named minister in charge of the public service, the country's main employer.

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