Nearly five months following Tunisia’s Oct. 5 parliamentary elections, the country is still struggling to form a government. Prime Minister-designate Elyes Fakhfakh finally submitted his list of proposed ministers to President Kais Saied, and parliament is to vote on the Cabinet lineup Feb. 26. But even now the bitter political wrangling has not subsided, raising questions about whether parliament will vote in this government and avoid the risk of fresh elections.

On Jan. 10, the previous prime minister-designate, who had been nominated by Ennahda, lost his confidence vote. Habib Jemli's very long list of some 43 technocratic ministers was rejected by 140 votes out of 219, and Tunisia found itself once again in political limbo, with outgoing Prime Minister Yousef Chahed holding the fort.

The responsibility of choosing a new prime minister-designate then fell to the president. On Jan. 20, Saied chose an outsider, Fakhfakh, who served as tourism minister and then finance minister during the first post-revolution troika government. He is the leader of the center-left Ettakol party, which has no seats in parliament. 

Meanwhile, hopes of political unity were immediately dashed when Fakhfakh announced that his proposed government would not include Qalb Tounes, the party holding the second largest number of seats (38) in parliament.