SIGNIFICANT CHANGES to Tunisia’s interim government are expected today as political leaders seek to placate protesters angry at the presence in cabinet of figures linked to the deposed president’s regime.
As thousands of Tunisians demonstrated outside the office of prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, there was speculation last night that a conciliatory gesture was being prepared. Some reports suggested a council of “wise men” could be set up to replace or supervise the interim cabinet, while a government spokesman raised the possibility that more members of the RCD party may resign.
Opponents of the interim cabinet have demanded the removal of all ministers linked to the RCD, the party of former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
Four opposition politicians resigned from their ministerial posts last week in protest at the retention by the RCD of strategically important departments such as interior and defence.
In his first public appearance since Ben Ali fled the country, the head of the Tunisian army addressed protesters yesterday to urge calm and warn of the danger of a political vacuum.
“Our revolution is your revolution,” said Gen Rashid Ammar, whose decision to withdraw support from Ben Ali is widely regarded as a turning point that forced him to leave the country.
“The revolution of the youth could be lost and could be exploited by those who call for a vacuum. The army will protect the revolution,” Gen Ammar told crowds outside the prime minister’s office.
Helicopters flew low over central Tunis yesterday and police used teargas to disperse thousands of protesters chanting anti-government slogans. Many southerners had travelled to the capital on Sunday to demand a new cabinet.
“We have got to get rid of Ghannouchi,” said Ferid El Mekki from the city of Sfax, who defied the curfew to camp outside the prime minister’s office on Sunday night. “He worked with Ben Ali and his mafia. We’ll stay here until the very end.”
Yamina Mahfoudhi, a teacher who took part in a strike called by the main trade union yesterday, also insisted politicians linked to the RCD had to resign.
“We have no confidence in them,” she said. “They want to destroy all the proof against Ben Ali and his wife and then they want to form a new government themselves. Nothing will change as long as they’re in the cabinet.”
Government spokesman Tayeb Baccouche confirmed last night that a cabinet reshuffle was imminent. This would be used to replace ministers who resigned, but it was also possible more resignations would take place, he said.
Meanwhile, French president Nicolas Sarkozy has acknowledged criticism of Paris’s support for Ben Ali and its failure to grasp the significance of the movement that led to the revolution.
“There was a desperation, a suffering, a feeling of suffocation which, we have to admit, we did not properly assess,” Mr Sarkozy said, adding that he was ready to offer financial aid to Tunisia.
In Washington, the state department said it had sent its top diplomat for the Middle East to Tunisia for talks on the political crisis.