TUNIS — Tunisian Education Minister Salem Labyedh has resigned, the prime minister's spokesman said Wednesday, as pressure mounted on the Islamist-led government to step down amid a growing political crisis. Last week's killing of a leftist politician, the second to be slain by suspected militants in six months, is disrupting a tense political transition that began when Tunisians toppled an autocratic leader in 2011. Opposition parties, the largest labor union and the secular Ettakatol party, the ruling Islamist Ennahda party's junior coalition partner, have all demanded the government's departure. Labyedh, a secular independent, had said he was considering resigning after fellow-leftist Mohamed Brahmi was shot dead on Thursday in an assassination the government has pinned on hardline Salafists. The opposition blames Ennahda. The opposition is also calling for the dissolution of the transitional Constituent Assembly, just weeks before the elected body completes a new draft constitution. Ennahda has softened its rejection of opposition demands, saying it was open to the possibility of a new government, but has firmly rejected demands to disband the assembly. Labyedh's resignation came as Tunisia mourned eight soldiers slain by militants as appeals from the Islamist-led government for unity and the calling of a December election failed to quell violent protests. Prime Minister Ali Larayedh reiterated that his government would not resign, telling a state television channel he was opposed “to this government stopping work”. The soldiers were found on Monday, their throats slit after they were ambushed by an armed group in Mount Chaambi near the Algerian border. The brutal killings triggered protests in the nearby eastern city of Kasserine, where demonstrators ransacked the local office of Ennahda. That incident came despite calls by President Moncef Marzouki for national unity and after Larayedh, an Islamist, announced a general election for December. The election is seen as a concession aimed at appeasing a growing mood of rebellion in Tunisia, where emotions have run high since Thursday's assassination of Brahmi. Larayedh defiantly insisted his government would stay put, telling state television “this government will stay in office”. “We are not clinging to power, but we have a duty and a responsibility that we will exercise to the end,” he said, proposing instead a general election for Dec. 17. Larayedh said he favored enlarging the existing coalition. “Talks could focus on the formation of the government and move toward its enlargement,” he said. “When I formed the government (in March), I had proposed a government of national unity,” Larayedh said of talks that foundered as the opposition thought Ennahda wanted too much of a monopoly. Ennahda coalition partner Ettakatol and the 500,000-strong General Union of Tunisian Labor (UGTT) separately called for a new government. However, the powerful UGTT, a key player in the 2011 uprising did not back the call by thousands of protesters who have calling for the dissolution of the National Assembly. — Agencies
