Chahed divides the Tunisian president‘s party, eight MPs resign

Eight MPs from Nidaa Tounes, the Tunisian president’s party and leader of the ruling coalition, decided on Saturday to resign from the party and join the National Coalition bloc in support of Prime Minister Youssef Chahed. This came amid expectations that other deputies will follow suit in the coming hours. Such resignations will turn the balance of power in favour of Chahed and enable him to remain in office.

The decision was made due to the deep differences and uncompromising splits within the ruling party. A section insists on keeping Youssef Chahed, who is a member of the same party, as prime minister, and another, led by the president’s son, Hafedh Caid Essebsi, demanding to dismiss him, according to Al-Arabiya.

The outgoing MP Zohra Idris explained the resignation in a statement to Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) as the direct result of “the MPs’ disappointment in Nidaa Tounes’s executive director’s administration of the party.” Idris added that Hafedh Caid Essebsi takes all the decisions within the party individually, and ignores the structures and founding leaders of Nidaa Tounes”.

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While MP Jalal Ghadira said that the resignation “falls within the support of the highest interests of the country, the government’s stability, and endorsing the national development and economic projects. The decision to resign is aimed to stabilise the efforts of the government.”

Following the resignations, Nidaa Tounes accused, in a statement on Saturday, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, of being more interested “in disrupting the unity of parties and parliamentary blocs than focusing on the problems of the country.” The party’s communiqué also mentioned that Chahed received a group of Nidaa Tounes’ MPs in his residence in Carthage to ask them to resign from Nidaa Tounes bloc and join the National Coalition bloc.

It is noteworthy that with the resignation of the eight MPs, the number of Nidaa Tounes’s parliamentary deputies will decline to 48, in comparison to the National Coalition’s MPs number which will increase to 41. Such change will open the way for Chahed to resolve the battle with his opponent, Hafedh Caid Essebsi, and ensure his continuation at the head of the government, especially in light of Ennahda’s continuous support of the current prime minister.

Nidaa Tounes’s expected response to such developments is to invite the party’s ministers, namely: the minister of tourism, the sports minister, the minister of transport and industry minister, along with three state secretaries to resign from the government, forcing Chahed to leave.

Read: Chahed government has become a major political crisis