After eight months of intense effort Tunisia's coalition troika government has now given birth to another, a phenomenon that has disappointed many observers while also giving new hope to others. However, despite the new developments the country's political affairs have remained much the same as they were, with the political elite being accused of wasting time on consultations and the disputes between the parties taking the country back to where it was eight months in the eyes of some observers. The troika government under the leadership of the Islamist Al-Nahda Party failed to expand the ruling coalition as most politicians had hoped despite former prime minister Hamadi Al-Jibali's attempts to form a technocratic government. As a result, former minister of the interior Ali Larayedh put together a new coalition government 15 minutes before the deadline set out in the country's provisional constitution and basic law regulating governance. The public was able to breathe more easily and was somewhat reassured after anxiety had spread across the country because of what seemed to be an absence of consensus, little political vision, and the possibility of social upheaval and economic repercussions. If Larayedh had failed to form a new government after Al-Jibali had resigned, it would have been difficult to predict what could have happened in Tunisia in the light of the current constitutional and governmental vacuum. Despite Larayedh's positive step, the formation of the new coalition cannot disguise the fact that the demands of the country's 2011 revolution remain unmet. Unemployment is still high, the uneven development across the country has not been tackled, and there have been difficulties in writing the new constitution. Other challenges remain in place, among them strengthening Tunisia's state institutions such as the Independent Elections Board, the Higher Authority for Audiovisual Communication and the Independent Judicial Commission, all of which must be reconstituted before the upcoming elections due to take place sometime within the next eight months. Chair of the Tunisian Constituent Assembly Mustafa bin Jaafar recently stated that the new constitution would be ratified before June this year. The major differences between Larayedh's cabinet and the previous government are that half its members are independent and non-partisan figures, key ministries are in the hands of non-party figures, and there are fewer ministries. These demands were forced on Al-Nahda by the opposition parties, but the latter are still not included in the new cabinet. Al-Nahda's insistence on not disbanding the so-called “revolution protection groups,” described by the opposition as violent and not conforming to the principles of peaceful coexistence and democracy, and its partisanship in distributing cabinet positions have prevented parties such as the Freedom and Dignity Party and the Al-Wafaa Party (an offshoot of the Congress for the Republic Party) from joining the ruling coalition. The two parties criticised what they called a new government that had no clear political agenda, but Larayedh said his government would work to realise three top priorities, namely reinstating security, holding free-and-fair elections in 2013, and curbing price hikes and the drop in purchasing power. He urged all officials and politicians to give priority to national interests over partisan ones. The question now arises of whether the new government can earn the confidence of the Constituent Assembly. By forming a new troika government, Al-Nahda seems certain to gain a majority vote of the assembly (109 plus 1), since 89 of the seats belong to the movement, along with the seats of the Congress for the Republic Party and the bloc for Employment and Freedom, both members of the troika, and some independent members. The real test will not be a majority vote inside the Assembly but rather achieving a national consensus on key issues like ending the conflict and violence in the country and rebuilding without exclusions or the monopolisation of decision-making. Accordingly, while reactions were positive up to a point within the troika about the composition of the new cabinet, the opposition was still divided about the cabinet members and the parties in the new government. Some parties rejected it out of hand and said they would not vote for it in the assembly, while others asked for more time to consult before taking up position on the new cabinet. The Tunisia Call Party, which boycotted the last elections but was able to attract many members of the Assembly and form a bloc inside it, said the new government was biased though there were independent figures at the helm of key ministries. The party's spokesman, Lazhar Akremi, said the new cabinet was a reproduction of the troika and his party would not vote for it in the assembly. Ahmed Al-Sadek, a member of the Popular Front Party, agreed, saying there had been no meaningful change in the composition of the new government, which he described as being a clone of the first troika. Samir Tayeb from the leftist Path Party said the new government did not meet the aspirations of the Tunisian people and its composition had taken the country back to square one. Tayeb doubted the independence of the cabinet members in key ministries, and indicated that his party was unlikely to vote for the government in the Assembly. The Republican Party said that the new government was a clone of the first troika, and what the country needed was a national-salvation government to put the transition process back on track. Party member Essam Al-Shabi said after the new cabinet was announced that his party would closely monitor the performance of the new ministers, and he criticised Larayedh for not reassuring the public that cabinet members would dedicate their time to their jobs and not nominate themselves in the next elections. This was rejected by Al-Nahda, with minister of health Abdel-Latif Al-Mekki, a member of the movement's executive, saying that asking cabinet members not to nominate themselves in the elections was “political blackmail” and was unheard of in other countries. The debate reflects the continuing distrust among Tunisia's politicians. Some analysts believe that the reluctance of the opposition to be part of the new government was out of caution, the intention being to avoid making mistakes that could be costly in the forthcoming elections that are now only a few months away.
