Ennahdha maneuvered against Fakhfakh government to protect Ghannouchi from withdrawing confidence
Fakhfakh’s government is facing a severe political crisis that threatens to jeopardize its future at the head of the executive branch.
The case of suspected conflict of interest related to Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh has only served to push the government team further into crisis.
The case, which is now the subject of an expertise and investigation in the judicial, parliamentary and administrative spheres, has made the government’s room for manoeuvre to get its head above water increasingly narrow.
The fall of the Fakhfakh’s government is more and more likely in view of the reaction of the political heavyweights in parliament, particularly Ennahdha, which is pressuring Elyes Fakhfakh to withdraw its confidence, like a sword of Damocles, while he himself has undertaken to resign if the conflict of interest is proven.
Several politicians and observers of the political scene in Tunisia believe that this affair has weakened the government coalition while accentuating the fracture between its main components.
That divide was already revealed in broad daylight at the time of the consultations on the formation of the current government.
Ennahdha now deems it necessary to reassess his position towards the government and the coalition and present it to the Shura Council in order to take the right decision.
The Ennahdha movement, which insisted so recently on the need to broaden the government’s political support, now believes that suspicions of a conflict of interest linked to the Prime Minister have undermined the coalition’s image.
In the meantime, Chairman of the Shura Council, Abdelkrim Harouni, has advised the Prime Minister to submit his resignation.
Harouni reported on a private radio station that the executive bureau has had access to information on the case of Elyes Fakhfakh, saying the Shura Council will consider the issue at its meeting at the weekend.
For its part, the “Echaab” movement, a member of the government coalition, called on the Ennahdha movement not to use the conflict of interest case to settle its scores with the government.
“Echaab” believes that “Ennahdha is harassing Elyes Fakhfakh and blackmailing the government.
The Echaab movement pointed out that the issue of the withdrawal of confidence in the government was instigated by Ennahdha in particular through its call to enlarge the coalition.
“There are those who do not want the Fakhfakh government to succeed, for the simple reason that the Echaab movement and the Democratic Current are part of this government.
The question has no connection with the Prime Minister’s case,” the Echaab movement pointed out.
The divergence of positions between the components of the government coalition and the fratricidal struggles between them, as well as the absence of the principle of solidarity and governmental coherence, confirm, according to observers, both the weakness of the coalition in power and the vagueness and upheavals that mark the Tunisian political scene.
The data of the current situation suggest a reconfiguration of the political field and a new mapping of alliances within it.
The system behind the failure
After the 2011 revolution, Tunisia opted for a political system based on a balance between the legislative, executive and judicial powers, enshrined in the drafting of a new Constitution in January 2014.
The new fundamental law breaks with the presidential regime as the centre of executive power in the hands of the sole President of the Republic.
That political system has been criticised by several civil and political sensibilities but also by experts in constitutional law.
To this end, professor of constitutional law Amin Mahdfoudh believes that Tunisia is today enduring the test of the fragmentation of powers.
Speaking at a meeting on the political system recently held in Tunis, Amine Mahfoudh explained the complexity of the political regime through constitutional engineering and of certain laws (electoral law, internal rules of procedure of parliament …).
This complexity was felt during the formation of the government and the resort to Article 89 of the Constitution.
For his part, former President of the ISIE (Electoral Body) Chafik Sarsar linked the political field to a “sick” partisan landscape, which is behind the crisis experienced by the country.
Secretary General of the People’s Movement Zouheir Hamdi, for his part, considered that the fall, in record time, of the government augurs a new power crisis, hence the need for a new political initiative on the method of choosing the personality best suited to form the government.
He added that the method of correspondence, files and pressure exerted by lobbies to impose Elyes Fakhfakh has proved unproductive and unsuccessful. For him, counting on the parliamentary majority no longer has any political or ethical basis.
Zouheir Hamdi believes that the country must seize its last chance before the disaster, through the appointment of a personality capable of forming a small team to carry out a real programme of salvation.
In his view, this requires broadening the basis for consultation, while avoiding the mistakes of the past in the choice of governments.
Deterioration of economic and social situation
The deterioration of the economic and social situation after the revolution worsened the political crisis.
In this sense, Mohsen Marzouk (Machrou Tounès) noted in a statement to TAP that economic and social failures have exasperated Tunisians in the face of governments based on party quotas.
The lack of urgent responses to social and economic difficulties may lead the country into an explosive situation, he warned.
Political scientist Abdellatif Hanachi, for his part, highlighted the fluctuating nature of the performance and behaviour of the political class since 2011 and its inability to put forward clear visions on economic and social issues.
According to him, these economic and social failures are mainly due to internal and external constraints.
He cited the crisis in Libya, Tunisia’s second partner after the European Union.
In addition to this, the repercussions of COVID-19 are being felt with the announced loss of more than 130 thousand new jobs and a growth rate that will be reduced to -6 pc (according to official projections).
Politicians in the hot seat
For several specialists, the Tunisian political class is made up of fragile parties whose sole objective is to gain power.
Political scientist Abdellatif Hanachi believes that the problem lies in the selfishness of the political elite “which places the parties above the country,” and seeks to serve its own interests or those of foreign parties.
He pointed to the crisis of confidence between politicians, within the ruling coalition and between it and the opposition.
Zouheir Hamdi (People’s Movement) noted that the 2019 elections have brought up parties whose only credo is “the headlong rush”.
If this situation persists, the responsibility must be put back in the hands of the people, as the results of the 2019 elections had led the country to a deadlock, he said.
For his part, Mohsen Marzouk called for a national salvation congress sponsored by national organisations alongside the Presidency of the Republic, parties represented in parliament and civil society.
Secretary General of the UGTT Noureddine Tabboubi considered it more opportune to move towards early elections.
Those calling for a change in the political regime would have done better to look into the revision of the electoral code and the installation of the Constitutional Court.
Tunisia has had 11 governments, since 2011, including 5 after the promulgation of the 2014 Constitution.
