Intel: Tunisia's new government wins vote of confidence from legislators

Tunisia’s parliament approved Prime Minister-designate Elyes Fakhfakh’s new coalition government early Feb. 27.

Lawmakers voted 129-77 in favor of the French-educated former finance minister. He was tasked with forming the new government by Tunisia’s enigmatic and doggedly independent new president, Kais Saied, after Habib Jemli — the nominee of the parliament’s largest party, the conservative Ennahda — failed to secure the requisite number of votes in a previous round.

More of the same? Fakhfakh scraped through after much wheeling and dealing with Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi at center stage. The parliament speaker initially rejected Fakhfakh’s list over its exclusion of his one-time nemesis, media magnate Nabil Karaoui’s Kalb Tounes. But Ghannouchi made a last-minute U-turn in order to avert a fresh round of parliamentary elections that would likely see his party lose further support.

Paradoxically, it’s just this sort of backroom dealing that millions of voters fed up with endemic corruption and rising joblessness rejected when they ushered in dozens of independents in parliamentary elections in September, giving rise to a hung chamber.