16th July, 2018
President Beji Essebsi of Tunisia has called on Prime Minister Youssef Chahed to step down or seek a confidence vote amid a political crisis in the North African country.
“The prime minister has two options in case the crisis with political and national powers continues, either resign or ask for a parliamentary confidence vote,” Essebsi said.
There is infighting in the coalition government, appointed in 2016, and with the Tunisian General Labour Union over ongoing reforms.
Chahed’s government, the eighth since a political transition started in 2011, has embarked on a reform programme but has failed to solve economic problems including a budget deficit and unemployment.
Two ministers have left the government in recent weeks.
On Sunday, the minister of relations with the constitutional authorities resigned, while the interior minister was sacked in June days after a deadly shipwreck.
Tunisia is widely seen as the sole democratic success story of the 2010 to 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
The country has been in the grip of an economic slowdown, resulting from the unrest that followed the revolt against long-time dictator Ben Ali and ensuing attacks by insurgents.