Tunisian government

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Place the Government on the edge of the Medina of Tunis : headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Government (left) and the Prime Minister at the Dar El Bey (right)

The government of the Republic of Tunisia consists of the Prime Minister and the ministers and state secretaries appointed by him. Your structure and competencies are in Artt. 89–101 of the new constitution of the Republic of Tunisia passed in January 2014 . The government, together with the President, holds the executive power in a dual leadership ; at its head is the head of government, Art. 71. These two competing Poles, President and Prime Minister, are a reaction to the dictatorial-autocratic past of the Tunisian political system , which was overcome by the 2011 revolution and in a lengthy process of constitution- making in favor of a system the checks and balances have been replaced by a democratic, semi-presidential system of government .

The head of government is proposed by the president and chooses his ministers and state secretaries himself, but the foreign and defense ministers in coordination with the president (Art. 89 para. 1). The President must propose the candidate of the strongest party represented there within one week of the determination of the final result of the respective election to the People's Representative Assembly (Art. 89 Para. 2). He must put together a cabinet within one month and then put this together with a short version of the government program for a vote of confidence in parliament, after which the president appoints him and the ministers (Art. 89, Para. 4). This deadline can be extended to up to four months with consultation by the President if no cabinet is formed or the vote of confidence is lost before new elections have to take place (Art. 89 Para. 2–3).

The powers of the government are regulated in detail in Art. 91. In principle, it is responsible for all matters relating to the executive power , in particular the Prime Minister has general authority to issue guidelines (Art. 91 f.) And has a "paramount position" in the government, especially when it comes to the issuing of decrees (Art. 94), if not the expressly named powers of the President are affected. According to Art. 77, its competencies include foreign affairs, defense and internal security; in these areas, the President also chairs the Council of Ministers (Art. 93) and can also chair other cabinet meetings. This shows the head of government's weak position, which is reinforced by the fact that, in accordance with Art. 95-97 is responsible to the parliament , which is also endowed with a strong position, and on whose trust he and his individual ministers depend. Art. 97 provides that the head of government can be overthrown by a constructive vote of no confidence by an absolute majority in parliament, while a two-thirds majority is required against the president (Art. 88). The president's power is limited in that he cannot dissolve the government himself, but has to ask parliament to vote in confidence; after two votes initiated by him and survived by the government, the president himself must resign (Art. 99). Conflicts of competence between the head of government and the president are decided by the newly established constitutional court (Art. 101).

According to the analysis of the lawyer Achim-Rüdiger Börner, it is problematic that the competencies between the president and prime minister are not precisely coordinated (Art. 77 and 93); the interaction of the constitutional organs, especially in the legislative process, is indefinite. According to the assessment of Chawki Gaddes from the Heinrich Böll Foundation, there is a structural “clear predominance” of the parliament over the executive power according to the constitutional text, but this formulation is unprecedented and creates a “latent imbalance” that is “neither purely presidential to establish a complete parliamentary system. The analysis of the constitution at OpenDemocracy indicates that abuse cannot be combated effectively, as there are hardly any restrictions on the respective responsibilities. The Constitution particularly emphasizes the importance of internal security, the preservation of which is left entirely in the hands of the President, without restricting him, especially in cases of emergency (Art. 80). According to the opinion of the KAS office manager in Tunis, Hardy Ostry, this strong position of the president was enforced by the secular opposition in the constituent assembly in order to build up a strong counterweight against the parliament, while the moderate Islamist Ennahda , which took over politics from 2011 to 2013 dominated, had favored a strong position of the Prime Minister. In this respect, the position of the government is based on the “idea of ​​compromise”.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ^ Constitution of the Republic of Tunisia. Tunis, January 26, 2014. German . Translation by the language service of the German Bundestag. In: KAS.de , pp. 26-30.
  2. ↑ a b Achim-Rüdiger Börner: The new constitution of the Republic of Tunisia - an introduction. PDF. In: Society for Arabic and Islamic Law , February 2014, p. 10.
  3. ↑ To the regulations at a glance Achim-Rüdiger Börner: The new constitution of the Republic of Tunisia - An introduction. PDF. In: Society for Arabic and Islamic Law , February 2014, pp. 8-10.
  4. ^ Key Aspects of Tunisia's New Constitution. In: AhramOnline , January 26, 2014.
  5. ↑ Chawki Gaddes: The political order of Tunisia according to the constitution of 2014. In: Heinrich Böll Foundation : Dossier: Tunisia elects! October 21, 2014.
  6. ^ Zaid al-Ali, Donia Ben Romdhane: Tunisia's New Constitution: Progress and Challenges to Come. In: OpenDemocracy.net , February 16, 2014.
  7. ^ Hardy Ostry: New constitution for Tunisia comes into force. Unique and compromise at the same time. In: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung : Country Report Tunisia , February 11, 2014, p. 4 f. (Quote p. 5).