With just a few short hours to spare before midnight on March 15, the Tunisian Prime Minister, Ali Larayedh managed to form a new government. However at the same time, Larayedh also failed to expand his power base due to the refusal of several blocs to join him in government. The Democratic Alliance, Freedom and Dignity, as well as the Wafa, or Fidelity, party chose not to join his new government.

With just a few short hours to spare before midnight on March 15, the Tunisian Prime Minister, Ali Larayedh managed to form a new government. However at the same time, Larayedh also failed to expand his power base due to the refusal of several blocs to join him in government. The Democratic Alliance, Freedom and Dignity, as well as the Wafa, or Fidelity, party chose not to join his new government.

The ruling coalition is now a “coalition-lite” and has shrunk from 138 MPs to 114 MPs. That is still more than the 109 MPs needed to form a government in Tunisia but it is a fairly weak power base – especially because several blocs within the coalition still look unsteady. Negotiations to form the coalition took a long time.    

The number of ministry portfolios that Larayedh’s coalition will oversee has also fallen – from 41 to 37. This is due to a consolidation. For example, the ministries for investment and international cooperation and for development and planning have all been replaced by two ministries: Development and International Cooperation and Regional Development. A minister for state reform no longer exists and three other senior positions inside the Ministry for Foreign Affairs have been replaced by one.

While Larayedh’s Ennahda party still has the majority of ministerial seats, CPR and Ettakatol have three each.  The remainder of the positions have been taken up by independents.

The overall composition of the Tunisian parliament sees the coalition getting a minority share – 46 percent of seats versus 54 percent for independents. But in the Cabinet, the coalition’s share reaches 52 percent.

“Democracy requires patience,” Larayedh told media at a press conference following the negotiations. He also said that it was important that the government be sworn in as soon as possible so that Tunisia could get on with everyday life.

Larayedh also agreed that the current coalition government would not rule for any longer than the agreed-upon date for Tunisia’s next elections, due to be held before the end of the year. He said that the negotiated coalition had managed to meet many of the opposition’s and coalition partners’ demands and that his government would react firmly against any more violence. Tunisia has been in political turmoil since the murder of opposition leader Chokri Belaid on February 6.

Opposition parties greeted the formation of the government with some reservations and some criticisms. Several parties were critical of the minority coalition, which indicated a lack of popular, democratic support.

The new Cabinet “fails to reflect public opinion and it’s based on a quota system,” said Mahmoud Baroudi, a member of the Democratic Alliance, one of the parties that resisted joining the new coalition. “It was a mountain of labour and it produced a molehill,” he said.  

Opposition parties were also unimpressed with the fact that Noureddine Khadmi was the Minster for Religious Affairs. This hardly indicated Ennahda’s intention to neutralize that ministry, they said, or separate church and state. Khadmi had already been criticised for failing to take action against mosques being used for political purposes and for instigating violence among religious extremists.

Presently it is hard to say whether this new coalition government will be any more successful than the last. However one thing is certain: the deciding factor will be living conditions for ordinary Tunisians. So far the politicians who have come to power have only managed to lower their credit rating with voters, through in-house squabbling, power grabs and a general disregard for what the Tunisian people need and want.