Tunisia: Prime minister sets up

Tunisia | 28 September 2017

Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed has reshuffled his cabinet and appointed 13 new ministers. According to a report by Al-Jazeera on 6 September 2017, the appointment of the new ministers was undertaken after consultations within the governing coalition (with parties such as Nidaa Tounes and Ennahda) and with the most powerful labor union in Tunisia. The prime minister has dubbed the new cabinet a "war cabinet" to indicate that the government"s priority will be on tackling terrorism, corruption, unemployment and inequality. Yonas Dembele, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "Despite being hailed as the most successful democracy to emerge out of the Arab Spring uprisings, Tunisia is facing many difficulties. The most significant challenges are indeed terrorism and unemployment. The government"s resolve to address these problems and its focus on these issues as its priorities is commendable. Success on the economic and security front would lead to stability and could also create an environment with greater freedom for Christians. However, this remains a daunting task and many cabinet reshuffles have already taken place."‚ ‚