Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi on Wednesday named local affairs minister Youssef Chahed, 40, as prime minister-designate tasked with forming a unity cabinet to tackle major economic and security challenges.
If he wins the backing of parliament, Chahed will be the North African country’s youngest premier since it won independence from France in 1956.
He takes office as Tunisia struggles with a stagnant economy and the threat posed by jihadist groups.
His appointment comes days after lawmakers passed a vote of no confidence in outgoing premier Habib Essid.
“Today we are entering a new stage that requires effort, sacrifice, audacity, courage, selflessness and unorthodox solutions,” Chahed told reporters outside the presidential palace in Carthage.
Chahed, who is said to be a distant relative of Essebsi’s, now has 30 days to come up with a ministerial team. I met today with the president… who charged me with forming a national unity government,” he said.
He promised that women would be better represented in his cabinet than in previous governments and called for greater youth involvement.
Chahed – who studied agricultural engineering – entered politics after the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
He joined Nidaa Tounes in 2013.
Even before his nomination, Tunisians were enthusiastic about Chahed’s young age – especially compared to other leaders in the five and a half years since Tunisia’s youth-led revolution.
Essebsi is 89 years old, while Essid is 67.
But others criticised the appointment of a member of an outgoing government they see as having failed to address the country’s challenges.
They also slammed his links with the president – whose son’s presence in Nidaa Tounes is already controversial.
Discontent over nepotism under Ben Ali helped fuel the revolt that ousted him.
Presidential adviser Saida Garrach however dismissed criticism of the premier-designate.
“You can’t punish someone or deprive them of whatever it is just because of… who they are related to,” she told radio station Shems FM.
“Half the Tunisian population are related by marriage.”
A source close to the prime minister-designate, who asked to remain anonymous, said Chahed was “a man of integrity, who works hard, does not belong to lobbies… and knows Tunisia’s real problems.”
Essid’s government had faced growing criticism for failing to tackle repeated jihadist attacks and an economic crisis.
Two attacks claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group last year killed 59 holidaymakers at a museum in the capital and at a beach resort near Sousse, dealing a heavy blow to the country’s vital tourism sector.
Tunisia has been in a state of emergency since November, when a suicide bombing – also claimed by IS – killed 12 presidential guards in central Tunis.
Economic growth slowed to 0.8 per cent last year from 2.3 per cent in 2014, and unemployment nationwide stood at 15 percent at the end of last year.
AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment