Incoming Tunisia PM faces mammoth task

Tunisian president Kais Saied has appointed Elyes Farfakh as the country’s new prime minister designate.

This comes after the previously appointed prime minister failed to get enough votes in parliament to back the cabinet he proposed.

Mr Farfakh was not the obvious choice for many in the country, including parliamentarians who favoured other potential candidates for the role.

The 48-year-old is a former minister of finance, and was a candidate in the 2019 presidential election – but got less than 1% of the vote.

Mr Farfakh has one month to form a government, and if he fails to do so like his recent predecessor Tunisia will need to hold a new round of legislative elections.

The government formation is facing an uphill struggle after a deeply divided parliament was elected back in early October.

The country needs urgent fiscal and economic reforms, and it is struggling with pressure from international lenders.

The economy has languished since the 2011 revolution, with low growth, high state deficits and debt, mounting unemployment and declining public services that have caused many Tunisians to lose faith in politics.

If he gets a nod from the majority of Tunisia's lawmakers, Mr Farfakh says he will work on rewarding "weaker regions and neighbourhoods and end decades of poverty and marginalisation” - a mammoth task for any head of government in this young democracy that is still finding its feet in a region fraught with discontent.