Tunisia: Constituent Assembly approves Al-Areed's Government

Tunisia’s National Constituent Assembly approved on Wednesday the new government headed by a leader of the El-Nahda Movement, Ali Al-Areed, with 139 votes out of 217.

The new government that Al-Areed announced he had formed last Saturday has preserved the tripartite alliance between the El-Nahda Islamic Movement, the Congress for the Republic Party, and the Bloc for Labour and Liberties, and noted that the sovereign ministries had been neutralized.

It is worth mentioning that El-Nahda has 89 MP’s, the Congress has 15 and the Bloc has 13. The government has also got the support of the Freedom and Dignity Bloc and a number of the independent MP’s.

The new government’s supporters are betting on being able to overcome the political crisis that the country is facing, particularly regarding immediate demands from citizens which include issues of security, price rises and unemployment. They also demand a clearly-defined political program which will lead to elections before the end of this year following the drafting of the constitution and the formation of the institutions responsible for the elections, the media and the judiciary.