Tunisia’s prime minister axed top allies of fallen president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, including the defense and interior ministers, but failed to silence calls yesterday for his own resignation.
There were none of the usual chants and slogans among the hundreds of anti-government protesters who have camped out in front of Tunisian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi’s offices since Sunday.
However, there was also no sign that they were packing up just yet and there were continuing calls for Ghannouchi to fall on his sword as well.
Photo: AFP
“The majority want to continue to bring down Ghannouchi. The whole government has to go, especially Ghannouchi,” said Khaled Salhi, a 22-year-old student who called Thursday night’s Cabinet reshuffle just “playing for time.”
Tunisian newspapers were generally positive about the government changes, with a headline in Le Quotidien daily reading: “Deliverance, at last.”
However, a more ambiguous headline in Le Temps said: “The appeasement?” hinting at the degree of skepticism still remaining.
Ghannouchi on Thursday said he was staying on, but he replaced five ministers from Ben Ali’s last government whose control of key posts had been decried by protesters.
Three former allies of Ben Ali, including Ghannouchi himself, remain.
“This is a temporary government with a clear mission — to allow a transition to democracy,” Ghannouchi said in an address on state television in which he pleaded for Tunisians to end protests and return to work.
Kamel Morjane, who announced his resignation shortly before the reshuffle was announced, was replaced as foreign minister by Ahmed Ounais — a Paris-educated career diplomat and former ambassador to Moscow and New Delhi.
Farhat Rajhi, a former chief prosecutor, was appointed as interior minister and Abdelkarim Zebidi, a medical professor, took over defense.
Tunisia’s main trade union, the UGTT, which played a key role in anti-Ben Ali protests and had refused to recognize the interim Cabinet, said it now approved of Ghannouchi staying in power.
Tunisia experts offered mixed reactions to the reshuffle.
“These were stalwarts in the old regime. It’s not going to wash. The street won’t like it,” said George Joffe, a research fellow at Cambridge University.
Mokhtar Boubakar, a university lecturer in Tunis, said: “It’s a step forward. We have chased away the most symbolic RCD ministers” — a reference to Ben Ali’s still-potent Constitutional Democratic Rally party.
Ghannouchi, who resigned from the RCD last week in an attempt to quell public anger, has served as prime minister since 1999 and has said he will only resign after the country holds its first democratic elections. He says the vote could be held within six months, but has not given a date.
The government has unveiled unprecedented democratic freedoms, but has struggled to restore order in recent days as the 23-year authoritarian regime crumbles, although most schools and businesses have now reopened.
Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the popular Ennahdha (Awakening) Islamist movement, meanwhile prepared to return to Tunisia tomorrow after more than 20 years of forced exile, a spokesman for the movement in Paris said.
The Islamist still officially has a life sentence hanging over him, but in practice convicted political exiles have returned freely in recent days.
He founded Ennahdha in 1981 and says it is now a moderate force similar to Turkey’s Justice and Development Party.
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