Tunisia’s leading party, Nidaa Tounes, chose Habib Essid, an independent, veteran politician going as far back as the Ben Ali era and also active in the 2011 revolution, as its new prime minister.
By virtue of his position as an independent, which spares him some partisan pressures, Essid is faced with a long list of challenges in his task to set-up a new government— the top of which will be creating a state of national consensus.
Tunisia’s leading party, Nidaa Tounes, chose Habib Essid, an independent, veteran politician going as far back as the Ben Ali era and also active in the 2011 revolution, as its new prime minister.
By virtue of his position as an independent, which spares him some partisan pressures, Essid is faced with a long list of challenges in his task to set-up a new government— the top of which will be creating a state of national consensus.
Finding common ground among the different political forces and establishing a minimum level of trust between them and the government is the only way to protect the country from social upheaval. It is the only way to ease and facilitate the legal and legislative process, which the government needs while completing its remaining tasks.
Political consensus
Tunisians expect the new prime minister to keep the same distance from all parties starting with the consultation phase, the government formation and when the government reaches power.
This task will not be a difficult one for the prime minister-designate, especially since the largest parliamentary bloc, the Nidaa Tounnes bloc, a centrist bloc, the Ennahda Movement, a rightist Movement and the Free Patriotic Union, a centrist party, have all chosen to participate in Essid’s government.
According to the initial scene, the active opposition may be confined to the Popular Front, a Leftist one, and some small streams that do not form de-capacitating force neither in parliament nor in the street.
Socially, Habib Essid finds himself facing another no less important challenge of social rage. His race to form the government comes in a period characterized by social fury and stalled social negotiations between Tunisia’s general labour union, UGTT and other unionist forces on the one hand, which are all demanding a decisive decision regarding issues like an increase in wages, promotions, grants, and other demands, with the government of Mehdi Jumaa before its departure.
The technocrat government, led by Jumaa, is keen to put all issues on hold and postpone the conclusion of all agreements until the formation of a new government. This will undoubtedly create a major obstacle for this government which will have to deal with many demands and handle many large issues.
In its first days, the government may face a series of movements, protests and strikes, if it fails in reaching social peace between the different stakeholders right from the beginning and if it fails to initiate a social and political project dedicated to the achievement of development, creation of job opportunities, reducing price hikes, and the improvement of the conditions of the impoverished and vulnerable classes.
Security challenge
The second major and no less important and influential challenge is the security challenge, which requires a clear strategy and major resources. This challenge has become the obsession of all citizens and one of the government’s biggest concerns in the last three years.
Today, Habib Essid is also required to activate coordination mechanisms between the various security agencies and to create more joint operation rooms between the police, national guard, the national army, anti-terrorist squads and others and to provide them with all means that deliver a smooth flow of information, quick responses and the anticipation of threats and dangers before their occurrence.
The security challenge is becoming more intense with the increased terrorist threats to Tunisia. This requires strengthening the capacity of internal and external intelligence work in monitoring risks, especially because the situation in Libya is still dangerous and there is the threat of exporting terror from Libya to Tunisia. For this reason, security reform is a very delicate and sensitive issue because of its direct links to other sectors and its impact on all areas of life in the country.
It seems that Essid may succeed in handling this particular issue, especially since the terrorism law will not be confronted with the same opposition as the one it already confronted in the Constituent Assembly and which delayed its issuance more than one year ago.
The economic challenge
The Tunisian economy during these years has witnessed many setbacks which were about to lead to its collapse.
The urgent demand today is the provision of assurances to economic stakeholders such as banks, investors, and financial institutions to return to their earlier investments and to provide the country with the needed liquidity, which will enable it to come out of the critical situation which has been characterized by the state’s inability to repay its debts, severe contraction of hard currency reserves, difficulty of borrowing, and deficits suffered by many banks. All these accumulated problems require urgent solutions from Habib Essid’s new government.
In addition, there is a need to have more budget liquidity and Essid is required to give foreign investments, in cooperation with the presidency of the republic, the parliament and the private sector, a very special attention.
There should also be radical and deep reforms in the various economic sectors in terms of production costs, performances, the main infrastructure, distribution channels and other operations experiencing a big disruption, which have all led to a complete stoppage in a number of them and a huge deterioration in others.
There is no doubt that economic reform will produce reforms in the patterns of development, employment strategy, investments, exchange and trade and other reforms. And there is no doubt that only such a strategy can ensure the economic security of the country and provide it with some of its long-awaited prosperity.
