TUNISIA: Tunisia's president backs national unity govt

Tunis - Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi says he will support a government of national unity, as long as it includes Nobel Prize winning groups the UGTT union and UTICA.

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi. (Hassene Driddi, AP)

Any change of government would require the decommission of the current government followed by negotiations between all the groups involved, including political parties, unions and employers.

Essid was already forced into a broad reshuffle in January, when the country witnessed its worst violence since the Arab spring uprisings of 2011 that toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The economy has also been hit by several jihadists attacks, including one in June when 38 tourists were killed when gunmen stormed a beach resort. The incident has scared visitors away from its vital tourism industry.

Social unrest

Essebsi did not rule out the idea of a new prime minister to replace Habib Essid, who local media has speculated was about to depart after only a year and a half in the job.

"From what I have seen (of the current government), the bad points outweigh the positives, which has prompted me to... agree to look at a proposal to create a national unity government," he said in an interview.

He said any government would have to include the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) and the Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), which were part of a group of bodies that won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.

The National Dialogue Quartet, made up of four civil society groups, helped save Tunisia's transition to democracy at a sensitive moment in 2013 when the process was in danger of collapsing because of widespread social unrest.

News24