TUNIS — The collapse of Tunisia's shortest-lived government since its 2011 revolution has plunged its young democracy into a new crisis after successive failures by elected leaders to turn political freedom into economic success. Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh's coalition had only taken office in February after months of political wrangling in the deeply fragmented parliament formed by last year's election. His resignation on Wednesday means there will be a new round of talks to try to form a government and, if that fails, another election just as the country demands clear leadership to handle the global pandemic and its economic fallout. For Tunisia, widely seen as the sole comparative success story of the "Arab Spring" it triggered nine years ago with the revolution that introduced democracy, the stakes could hardly be higher.

Source: International New York Times July 17, 2020 14:26 UTC