Al-Nahda will not let go of Ministry of Justice in reshuffle

The leader of Al-Nahda Party in Tunisia, Rachid Ghannouchi, who also heads the governing coalition, has insisted that the movement will not give up the Ministry of Justice in the imminent cabinet reshuffle. The members of the ruling troika are in discussions about the shuffle at the moment.

Ghannouchi made a note of stressing his party’s intent in this respect without giving any details of why or how the other coalition members – the Congress for the Republic and Ettakatol for Labour and Liberties – are seeking to remove the justice portfolio from Al-Nahda.

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Ettakatol had insisted on changing the current Justice Minister, Noureddine Beheiri, who is a senior member of Al-Nahda. The Congress Party, meanwhile, has called for a change of Foreign Minister; the incumbent is Rafik Abdul Salam, who is also a senior member of the Islamic movement.

“Despite areas of disagreement among the troika, we have seen significant interest in the need to maintain the cohesion of the alliance throughout the remainder of the political transition phase,” said Ghannouchi.

He acknowledged that there are major disagreements in the troika as well as difficulties in the discussions about the ministerial reshuffle. “Nevertheless,” said Al-Nahda’s leader, “we can overcome all the difficulties.” He explained that consultations are still ongoing and the results are open and will be announced in the next few days.