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	Inquiry & Analysis|969|March 19, 2013 The New Tunisian Government – 'A Reproduction' Of The Previous Government That Circumvented The Revolution By: Anna Mahjar-Barducci* MEMRI | MEMRI TV | JIHAD AND TERRORISM THREAT MONITOR | SOUTH ASIA STUDIES PROJECT
	Introduction On February 19, 2013, Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali stepped down; his resignation followed the February 6 assassination of Tunisian secular leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid, gunned down in front of his home in the capital Tunis. Three days later, on February 22, President Moncef Marzouki asked Prime Minister Ali Larayedh, who had been formally nominated two weeks previously by El-Nahda party leader Rached Ghannouchi, to form a government. Prior to his appointment as prime minister, Larayedh had served as interior minister in Jebali's government; previously, he had spent 15 years in prison under the regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. After winning parliament's approval for his new government, Larayedh formally took on March 14 – on the same day that the funeral was held of a young street vendor who had burned himself to death in Tunis to protest against unemployment, recalling the January 2011 self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi that sparked Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution. Following a street vendor's self-immolation, on a main street in Tunis. Larayedh's prime ministerial appointment was not welcomed by the secular and liberal opposition. In a communiqué, the Popular Front, a leftist coalition of opposition groups of which Belaid had been a member, stated that Larayedh was one of the political figures bearing political responsibility for Belaid's assassination. The liberal opposition accuses the Islamist El-Nahda party, which won a relative majority in the 2011 Tunisian elections, of moral and political responsibility for the assassination (see also MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 923, The Assassination of Tunisian Political Leader Chokri Belaid; Tunisian Media: Government Bears Political Responsibility For Assassination). However, on February 8, the Tunisian media outlet Kapitalis published a lengthy editorial by Tunisian journalist Rachid Barnat, stating that political responsibility for the assassination rests not only with El-Nahda, but also with the ruling troika government comprising El-Nahda, the Congress for the Republic Party (CPR), and Ettakatol. Barnat accuses the troika of having done nothing to stop the rise of Islamism in the country, and states further that if the League for the Protection of the Revolution (LPR) is considered the militia of El-Nahda, then CPR leader and Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki can be considered to have flirted with the LPR – which the opposition also holds responsible for Belaid's assassination. "Who killed him [Chokri Belaid]?" Belaid's was not the country's first political assassination since the Jasmine Revolution. On October 18, 2012, Lotfi Nagued, coordinator of the secular party Nidaa Tounes, was killed after being beaten by members of the LPR; he was attacked in his office in Tataouine. Nidaa Tounes leader Beji Caid Essebsi called Nagued's death a "political assassination." At a February 1, 2013 El-Nahda Shoura Council meeting, El-Nahda members suggested that Nagued's killers and LPR members should be released from prison. A few days later, and the day before he was killed, Belaid said on the North African channel Nessma TV that with this suggestion, El-Nahda had given a green light for political killings in the country. "Who Killed Chokri Belaid?" On February 21, on his website Debatunisie.com, Tunisian cartoonist "_Z_" posted a series of cartoons making the point that the government is politically responsible for the killing of Chokri Belaid – and that Tunisian PM Ali Larayedh is among those who should be held accountable by the judicial authority for the assassination. "Who will be our next prime minister?"                    "Who killed Chokri Belaid?" "Who killed Chokri Belaid?"                              "Who will be our next prime minister?" In Communiqué, Popular Front Opposes Larayedh's Appointment As Prime Minister Following Larayedh's appointment as the new prime minister, the Popular Front released a communiqué stating that he was one of the symbols of the previous government's failure, and directly responsible for the country's current security situation. The communiqué stated: "Ali Larayedh's appointment to the post of head of the government is nothing but a reproduction of the [previous] government, that circumvented the revolution: New faces appear, but the same choices that led the previous government to failure are maintained. Governance is by the logic of party quotas and of how to divide the pie amongst them – to the detriment of the interests of the people and of the country. "The country's situation is catastrophic; aggravating the situation is the suffering that touches all levels of society. Security is absent, weapons are everywhere, the cost of living is high, militias are given a free hand, the administration is paralyzed, the reputation of the country is tarnished at the international level, there is hesitation about revealing [the names] of those who ordered, planned, carried out or contributed to the crime of the assassination of comrade Chokri Belaid – a martyr of the motherland, the secretary-general of the Party Of the United Patriots and the leader of the Popular Front. Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki (right) with PM Ali Larayedh "Concerning the various declarations of the El-Nadha movement officials regarding the creation of a large coalition, and [their] insistence on continuing the same politics that led this country to this catastrophic situation, the Popular Front intends to make the following declarations: "We categorically reject these positions, which do not serve the interests of the country, during this critical transitional period, when there is a need for a large consensus that transcends partisan and personal interests. For this reason, the Front rejects the prime ministerial appointment of Ali Larayedh. He is in fact one of the symbols of the previous government's bitter failure, and is directly responsible for the current security situation in the country [including] the wide-scale proliferation in weapons, the escalation of organized political violence, the attacks against [opposition] militants. Moreover, Larayedh bears political responsibility in the assassination of the country's martyr Chokri Belaid. "We accuse the interim president of the Republic [Moncef Marzouki] of having failed to seek a serious solution to the crisis [...]. "We consider the creation of a coalition government that includes the leaders to be a reproduction of the crisis that has been ongoing for the past seven months – during which the interests of the country have been neglected and the suffering of the citizens has worsened, in particular that of workers and the marginalized. Left: Ali Larayedh with "Go Away!" written on him. Right:"The biography of the prime ministerial candidate: ... [Larayedh is behind] unknown militias that beat opposition members, the attacks on the Tunisian General Labour Union offices, the attacks on the opposition's meetings, Salafi groups acting as like police... the assassination of Lotfi Nagued and Chokri Belaid, the reinstatement of the wire tapping of citizens, [and] the desecration of the Tunisian flag in Manouba." "We reiterate our proposal to convene a national salvation conference, tasked with completing, in a conventional manner, what remains to be done in the transitional period. This conference should appoint the governmental staff, of reduced size, comprising experts with no partisan affiliation, and should cancel the administrative appointments made on the basis of partisan loyalty. This is necessary in order to manage the remaining transitional phase on the basis of a conventional program,  with the aim of: "Guaranteeing clear political, electoral and constitutional agendas; "Creating institutions for the regulation of the judiciary, of medias and of elections; "Creating the proper climate for holding free and democratic elections, in particular, dissolving the League for the Protection of the Revolution [LPR] and all violent and organized militias; "Taking urgent economic and social measures allowing in particular to offset the suffering of the population." "Strange, this isn't at all what I planted on January 14, 2011 [the date of the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali]" "We launch a call to the masses of our people to continue the struggle by all possible peaceful means. We equally launch a call to all democratic forces to join forces against the maneuvers of those who have [already] failed and who will only worsen the crisis and aggravate the suffering of Tunisians. This [should be done] in order to save the country from incumbent dangers, to impose serious solutions for the people's suffering, to create security, to divulge the names of criminals, to put an end to violence, and to draw a clear political and constitutional agenda for the remaining transitional period. "We demand the immediate release of the names of those who ordered and carried out the assassination of the martyr and comrade Chokri Belaid." LPR – El-Nahda's Armed Wing, Or A Guarantor Of The Revolution? Chokri Belaid, who lived in fear of assassination, had been threatened by the League for the Protection of the Revolution (LPR), which the Tunisian opposition considers to be El-Nahda's paramilitary armed wing. It is thought by the opposition that the LPR is behind Belaid's assassination. The following are excerpts from an article published on the website of Ettounsiya TV prior to Belaid's assassination that accuses Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki himself of legitimizing this paramilitary movement.  "Intimidation attempts, incitation to hatred and use of violence... these are the means adopted in Tunisia by the controversial revolutionary movement that goes under the name of League for the Protection of the Revolution.  It is a group of people that does not restrain itself from using extreme [violence] in order to impose its law and spread a climate of tension. The LPR emblem "The question that everybody is asking is: Is the Tunisian revolution so fragile and unsteady that action must be taken to preserve it and protect it? This is certainly the view of the LPR, which deems it necessary to defend it [the revolution] against any attempt at a counterrevolutionary resurgence. "Although its objective might appear noble, the means of implementation are less noble – since what we are seeing is the application of the Machiavellian principle of 'the end justifies the means.' "In the [LPR's] first public appearance, a major incident [happened] in [the town of] Tataouine on October 12, 2012, when the LPR, with the support of two parties of the ruling troika, the Congress for the Republic (CPR) and El-Nahdha, carried out 'the march for clean-up,' meant to 'eliminate and get rid of the enemies of the people and of the revolution.' Directed mainly against the Nidaa Tounes party, this march is connected with the aggression against and subsequent death of the local coordinator [of Nidaa Tounes], Lofti Nagued. Lotfi Nagued "On December 4, 2012, the trade unionists of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) were also violently attacked by LPR militants, who were demanding that this trade union be purged. These incidents paralyzed the country and almost provoked a general strike. "The LPR, which pretends to represent the voice of the people, proclaimed itself the 'soul of the revolution' and fostered very grave political violence directed mainly against the civil society. Among other things, [the LPR] threatened the Association Tunisienne de Soutien des Minorities [Tunisian Association for the Support of Minorities], for having held a December 29, 2012 remembrance day for the deportation of Tunisian Jews during World War II. The LPR also intimidated the journalists writing for the Nawaat site, when [this site] revealed that two [LPR] members were implicated in an obscure affair of arms trafficking and in the project of killing eminent political figures. "The LPR has vehemently protested against the media, claiming that it is incompetent and corrupted. Lastly, it prepared a blacklist of the people who [in the LPR's view] are considered the leaders of the counterrevolution – among them Jewish community head Roger Bismuth, Nidaa Tounes leader Beji Caid Essebsi, and lobbyist Kamel El-Taief." Click here to read the full report. Please remember the environment before printing.