Tunisia PM rejects collective resignation of senior officials

TUNIS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed announced Monday that he had rejected a collective resignation of two of his ministers and two secretaries of state.

These ministers are Minister of Local Affairs and Environment, Minister of Vocational Training and Employment, as well as State Secretary to the Minister of Trade and State Secretary to the Minister of Youth and Sports.

"Proposed on an initiative of the President of the Republic, the Government of National Unity was not formed on the basis of political quotas," said Youssef Chahed in a brief statement.

"I decided to keep them at their posts under the supreme interest of Tunisia especially as the State is above all partisan calculations," said Youssef Chahed.

Last Saturday, the National Council of the party "Afek Tounes", in a special session held in the northern suburbs of Tunis, called on its representatives in the government to withdraw from their missions on the pretext that the current government deviated from the general spirit of the "Carthage Pact," a summary document signed in 2016 by a dozen political parties including Afek Tounes.

According to the party "Afek Tounes," this reference document "was emptied of its content and lost any motivation to exist, which could generate a false consensus that contradicts the supreme interest of the country," stressed its president Yassine Brahim. Enditem