Tunisia's new coalition government hit trouble today when four ministers quit and an opposition party threatened to walk out, undermining efforts to restore stability and end unrest on the streets.
Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi brought opposition leaders into the coalition on Monday after president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia following weeks of street protests.
But key figures from the old guard kept their jobs, angering opposition members of the coalition and street protesters.
In a bid to defuse the row, Ghannouchi and the caretaker president, Fouad Mebazza, later quit their party, the Democratic Constitutional Rally, long the vehicle for Ben Ali's hardline authoritarian rule.
State television, which reported the move, said the two men hoped to ‘split the state from the party’.
But the immediate response of trade union UGTT was that, while this was positive, it was not enough to reverse a decision to pull its three members out of the new unity government.
Police in Tunis repeatedly used tear gas in an attempt to break up a protest by hundreds of opposition party supporters and trade unionists who labelled the new government a ‘sham’.
Several hundred people also protested against the new government in Monastir, south of Tunis.
The weeks of protests over poverty and unemployment which forced Ben Ali out prompted speculation across the Arab world that other repressive governments might also face unrest.
