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Fractured Tunisian Parliament Moves Toward Agreement on PM

Lisa Bryant

   PARIS - For a country with a large share of unemployed workers, Tunisia
   has found it unusually difficult to fill a top post that of a prime
   minister capable of forming a government that can pass muster with its
   fractured parliament.

   This past week, it may have found the man.

   At 48, former finance minister and presidential candidate Elyes
   Fakhfakh is a youngish, if not a new face in Tunisian politics. While
   his own leftist party has little popular support, he may get the
   backing of key political forces. Tapped by President Kais Saied last
   Monday, he now has a month to form a Cabinet that meets legislative
   approval.

   If he fails, the country risks new elections.

   If he succeeds, Fakhfakh must grapple with multiple and sometimes
   conflicting challenges facing Tunisia, whose rocky political evolution
   remains closed watched as the only democracy to emerge from the Arab
   Spring. The North African country's economy is struggling, joblessness
   is high and many Tunisians are soured on politics. There is also the
   risk of conflict spilling across the border from neighboring Libya.

   "He has government experience, he is a credible figure, he is
   independent of the major political parties, but he's positioned in a
   way that he's able to draw political support from them," said analyst
   Anthony Dworkin of the European Council on Foreign Relations, who has
   met Fakhfakh and considers him "credible."

   "He could be a sort of reforming prime minister and try to get to grips
   with the economy," Dworkin added. "But at the same time, he will be
   politically weak."

   Others have already given Fakhfakh's nomination a thumbs down.

   "The public deficit exploded when he headed the country's finances,"
   said Tunisian columnist Nessim Ben Gharbia, in remarks published by Al
   Jazeera. "His party has no seat in parliament. It's no wonder his score
   at the last presidential election was only 0.34 percent."

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