Tunisia’s new head of government: a woman at the top – and many doubters


analysis

Status: 11.10.2021 2:57 p.m.

Bouden Romdhane is the first woman to become Prime Minister – in Tunisia and in the Arab world. The 60-year-old is politically unknown. This is not the only reason why critics fear that the move will remain symbolic politics.

By Dunja Sadaqi, ARD Studio Rabat

Nejla Bouden Romdhane – that’s the name of Tunisia’s new head of government. For the first time in the history of the small North African state, a woman is supposed to lead a government.

President Kais Saied commissioned them to form a government at the end of September – more than two months after he himself had deposed parliament and parts of the government. Saied had recently announced that he would now rule by decree – and in this way also appointed the now sworn government. With this move, the president had suspended parts of the new constitution, which had been drawn up in 2011 after the revolution of the so-called Arab Spring and the overthrow of long-term ruler Ben Ali.

Tunisia is therefore still in a constitutional crisis. The nomination of Bouden Romdhane caused mixed feelings in the streets of the capital Tunis. The young unemployed Raouia Gorab told the French news agency AFP: “We hope that she will solve the country’s problems and run government business as we wish. That means that she will improve the employment situation because there has been none since the coronavirus There is more work and factories have been closed. “

“We don’t know who she is”

The 21-year-old media student Yasmine Benhassen is also happy to have a woman at the top of the government. “I was happy when I found out about the appointment because it is the first time that there has been a head of government,” she says, adding: “But that doesn’t change the fact that we can’t be too happy with it, because we can don’t know who she is and what she will do. “

63-year-old Bouden Romdhane is little known in political circles. The engineer and university professor previously worked in the Ministry of Education. As a geologist, her work is said to have focused primarily on the earthquake hazard in Tunis. Now she is supposed to be the first woman in the state to get a grip on the political earthquake in the country – without any previous political experience.

This is historical, but that is precisely why constitutional lawyer Mouna Kraiem does not necessarily see this as progress. “What interests us today are the tasks of the head of government – and these will be what they are called in the decree,” she says. “It will not decide politics, as provided for in the 2014 constitution, but implement the policy of the president and be accountable to him, since we no longer have a parliament.”

Purely symbolic politics or role model function?

Is Bouden Romdhane’s appointment purely symbolic politics to calm Tunisia domestically and internationally? After all, the assumption of power by President Saied also caused international criticism. The only state that had made the leap into a democratic process since the so-called Arab Spring made a backward roll in matters of democracy ten years later.

Bouden Romdhane inherits several challenges, says political analyst Slaheddine Jourchi: “What is its program, what strategy, what priorities does it have? Especially since we are faced with an unprecedented crisis in the economic, financial, political and health sectors Especially since she has no experience and has shown no political interest until now. ” Internationally, many would have welcomed the fact that a woman is now coming to the head of government – “but at what price?” He asks. Because Bouden Romdhane’s pioneering status is another challenge.

Tunisia is seen as a role model when it comes to women’s rights in the region. Tunisia’s first female prime minister will also be the first woman to ever head government in an Arab country. She is just as much a political outsider as President Saied was once – but unlike him, she lacks the necessary legitimacy. Many are wondering how the first woman in the state will be able to stand up to the overpowering president in the future. So far she hasn’t even spoken in person.

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