Consultations on forming the Tunisian government begin.. What are its most prominent features?

Experts agree that the formation of the future Tunisian government will bring many surprises regarding the names of candidates for the various ministers, while also agreeing that all of them will be competent to face the challenges of the current period.

“As intense consultations to form a government proceed, amid speculation and anticipation, Najla Bouden sent a message to the Tunisian people pledging to work hard on all pressing issues, at the heart of which is the fight against corruption.”

On her official Twitter account, Najla Bouden said: “I am honored to be the first woman prime minister of Tunisia. I will work to form a coherent government to address the economic difficulties the country is facing, fight corruption, and respond to the demands of Tunisians regarding their natural rights to transport, health, and education.”

Observers believe it is difficult to predict the names of candidates for different ministries, especially since the formation of governments in Tunisia has always been surprising in the last moments. The most important criterion is efficiency and cleanliness of hand.

As for the criteria for selecting prospective members of the government, Tunisian President Kais Saied addressed Bouden, saying, “The choices will be based on patriotism and the ability to work and achieve.” He stressed, “We will not accept any interference in the choices.”

According to a press release issued by the presidency on this meeting, the Tunisian president also stressed, in the same context, that “there is no room to submit to any blackmail, compromise in the truth, or attempt to infiltrate to impose certain choices.”

He pointed out that the meeting comes within the framework of continuous consultations to form a government based on the criteria of patriotism and the ability to work and achieve a new history for Tunisia and respond to the legitimate demands of the Tunisian people.

The Tunisian president’s statements are not divorced from the intensive moves he is making with his team to combat all aspects of corruption in the country and to launch an urgent accountability for the corrupt.

In this regard, Saied met at length on Thursday with the Prime Minister and the President of the Court of Accounts, Naguib Al-Qatari. During the meeting, he confirmed that the last elections (2019) were funded by foreign funds, and by people he described as “corrupt.”

He stressed that “deputies who stole tickets to run in the last elections should not talk about fighting corruption, they stole the tickets,” adding that “several lists should have been canceled from the parliament.”

He continued: “We need to arrange penal repercussions, and the judiciary must play its historic role so that the people can regain their rights, and so that Tunisia gets rid of the addiction it has been stuck in for decades.

Tunisian political analyst Belhacen al-Yahyaoui outlines three conditions that will determine the formation of the country’s next government. The first of these conditions is extremely important and cannot be abandoned for all new officials, namely “clean hands”, meaning that they have no precedent related to financial or political corruption, external financing, or the exploitation of the resources of the people.

Regarding the second criterion set by those in charge of selecting the government, Al-Yahyaoui said, that it is efficiency, without considering what the government is, whether it is formed by “technocrats” or a representative of the political sects, but the most important condition is the competence of those people in dealing with the current issues facing the state and starting to find solutions, stressing that the president talked about these two criteria as they are essential in the selection and formation of the new Tunisian government.

According to Al-Yahyaoui, there is a third condition, probably related to the president, which is the degree of similarity between these figures and the president’s project that he seeks to implement in the coming period. He confirmed that the president fully adheres to the ethical standard in whoever leads the public affairs, in the sense that all people working in the political affairs are at a high level of morality, and this is a good measurement project.