The new Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, in Tunis on February 27, 2020. - AFP

In Tunisia, it is in a tense political context that Hichem Mechichi has just taken office. The Tunisian Minister of the Interior was appointed Saturday evening by President Kais Saied as head of the future government. He must train his team within a month.

Parliament's confidence needed by September

A lawyer by training, Hichem Mechichi, 46, was not proposed by the political parties in power. Minister of the Interior in the outgoing government of Elyes Fakhfakh, the new Prime Minister was the first adviser to President Saied, in charge of legal affairs. This former chief of staff of the ministries of Transport, Social Affairs and Health will have to gain the confidence of Parliament by an absolute majority by September. Otherwise, the Assembly will be dissolved and new legislative elections will take place. Tunisia, where the last legislative election took place in October, would then have 90 days to organize this early vote, i.e. before the end of 2020.

Hichem Mechichi considered that his new post represents a "great responsibility and a great challenge especially in the current circumstances of our country". He succeeds Elyes Fakhfakh who, weakened by a conflict of interest case, resigned under pressure from the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, which had filed a motion of no confidence against him. The new Prime Minister therefore has the difficult task of mustering a majority in a deeply fragmented Parliament. The Assembly of People's Representatives (ARP) is made up of a myriad of parties, some of which are at loggerheads. This is particularly the case with the Free Destourien Party (PDL) of anti-Islamist Abir Moussi (16 deputies out of 217) and the Ennahdha party, the leading force in parliament (54 deputies).

A symbolic date

The date of Hichem Mechichi's designation is also a symbol. It comes on the day when Tunisia celebrates the 63rd anniversary of the Republic. This day also commemorates the first anniversary of the death of Béji Caid Essebsi, the first Tunisian president elected by universal suffrage in 2014, who died a few months before the end of his mandate at the age of 92.

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