Tunisia’s Chahed names cabinet despite tensions
Youssef Chahed, the Tunisian prime minister, yesterday announced a major cabinet reshuffle after weeks of infighting over posts, replacing the key ministers of interior and defence.
The cabinet includes the new post of economic reforms minister, as Mr Chahed tries to push ahead with tough public wage bill reforms and a pension system overhaul meant to improve Tunisia’s public spending and deficits in line with IMF demands.
“I’ve decided on a government reshuffle,” Mr Chahed said, announcing the new line-up after talks with the president, Beji Caid Essebsi. The prime minister has been in power for just over a year.
Abdelkrim Zbidi, a former defence minister, returns to the leading role in place of the academic Farhat Horchani, while Lotfi Brahem, a former head of the national guard, replaces Hedi Majdoub for the role of interior minister role.
Cabinet head Ridha Chalghoum, a former finance minister close to the ruling Nidaa Tounes party, returns to the key position.
Mr Chahed named one of his economic advisers, Taoufik Rajhi, who is a member of the Islamist Ennahda party, to the new post of economic reforms minister.
Speculation had been rife for several weeks over new faces in Mr Chahed’s government after his consultations with political parties and organisations, such as the powerful labour union, UGTT.
Six years since the 2011 uprising against the autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has been held up as an example of how to avoid the violence that troubled other nations after the Arab Spring revolts.
Successive governments, however, have struggled to make economic reforms amid political infighting.