Mongi Marzouk brings in his liegemen at the Ministry of Energy and STEG

摘要

Mongi Marzouk, who returned to head the Ministry of Mines and Energy on February 27 after having already held the post in 2016, is using all the means at his disposal to ensure he has full control of the sector overseen by the ministry. In appointing Mohamed Ammar head of Société Tunisienne de l'Electricité et du Gaz (STEG) on March 20 to replace retiree Moncef Harrabi, he has both put a trusted associate in charge of the national electricity company and made a gesture of goodwill towards Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda party and president of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People (ARP). Neither Marzouk nor Ammar, who had previously been chief executive of STEG International Services, are Ennahda card holders but they are long-standing party sympathisers. "Sheikh" Ghannouchi had planned, moreover, to include them both in the Habib Jemli government he tried to have installed in January. Marzouk had been proposed as Minister of Energy and Ammar as Secretary of State for Renewable Energy.