Tunisia's Prime Minister Ali
Larayedh said on Monday the Islamist-led transitional government would continue
working despite mounting efforts to dissolve it, and, for the first time,
proposed a date for fresh elections later this year.
"The government will continue
performing its duties and it will not abandon them, not because it is keen to
hold power, and we will maintain our responsibilities until the final
moment," he said in televised speech. "We will focus on holding the
elections by the end of this year and our date is Dec. 17."
For its part, Tunisia's Ettakatol party, part of the
ruling coalition led by the Islamist Ennahda party, called for the dissolution
of the government to stave off a growing political crisis.
"We have called for the dissolution of
the government in favor of a new unity government that would represent the
broadest form of consensus," Lobni Jribi, a party leader, told Reuters.
"If Ennahda refuses this suggestion,
we will withdraw from government."
This
comes after the Tunisian army used barbed wire to shut down a main square being
used by pro- and anti-government protesters in the capital, declaring it
"a closed military zone".
Protesters on both sides vowed to return,
opposition media said, adding that anti-government protesters had already
started regrouping near the square.
Earlier, pro- and anti-government demonstrators
clashed in two Tunisian cities, witnesses said, as tensions rose over
opposition efforts to oust the Islamist-led government.
Angry opposition protesters tried to storm
municipal offices in Sidi Bouzid and stop employees there from working,
residents said, sparking clashes between them and supporters of the Islamist
Ennahda party, which leads the transitional government.
The army intervened to protect the offices and
police fired tear gas, but residents said thousands of demonstrators were still
gathering in the southern city, the cradle of the revolt that overthrew
President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.
Tunisians fear they may be plunging into one of
the worst crises in their political transition since Ben Ali was forced to flee
by an uprising that inspired unrest across the Arab world.
Opposition leaders say they might set up a
rival "salvation government", an idea they will discuss later on
Monday.
The secular opposition, angered by the second
assassination in its ranks in six months and emboldened by the Egyptian army's
ousting of an Islamist president this month, is now rejecting all concessions
and reconciliation efforts by the government.
Cabinet ministers will meet on Monday to
discuss the growing political crisis, a government official said, and a message
from the prime minister to the nation is expected soon.
Tunisia's powerful labor unions were also set
to meet on Monday to discuss more strike action. On Friday, the unions shut
down much of the country for a strike to mourn leftist politician Mohamed
Brahmi who was assassinated last week.
REUTERS