Tunisia's powerful UGTT union on Wednesday rejected any plans to cut subsidies, a stance against reform that will complicate the government's efforts to reach a deal with the International Monetary Fund on a rescue package.
UGTT spokesman Sami Tahri, speaking a week after the government resumed technical talks with the IMF, told reporters that a caretaker government now in place could out reforms.
"We reject any plans to cut subsidies and we refuse prices rises...Subsidies must be strengthened (to offset) a significant deterioration in purchasing power," Tahri said.
Talks with the IMF on a package, predicated on painful and unpopular steps to liberalise the economy, were halted on July 25 when President Kais Saied, faced with protracted government paralysis, dismissed the cabinet, suspended parliament and assumed executive authority.
Critics of the president described his moves as a coup, while major foreign donors whose financial assistance an IMF deal could unlock have urged him to return to a normal constitutional order.
