Tunisia president says sacked ministers over ‘national security’

TUNIS: Tunisian President Kais Saied has said “national security” concerns were behind a sweeping cabinet reshuffle ahead of October 6 elections.

Saied, who was democratically elected in 2019 but orchestrated a sweeping power grab in 2021, appointed 19 new cabinet members on Sunday — nearly the entire government — and replaced his foreign and defense ministers.

In a speech on Sunday night, he said the decision was due to a “lack of coherence” in his government and the “irresponsibility” of some ministers whose job it was “to help... and not make choices beyond those determined” by the presidency.

The reshuffle, he said, prioritized “national security.”

Saied added that there has been “for some time a conflict between those who work under the new constitution” — which the president pushed through after his power grab — and those working “for a corrupt system... whose actors hope for a return to the past,” when Tunisia was a dictatorship.

The 66-year-old president is seeking a second term, part of what he has called “a war of liberation and self-determination” aiming to “establish a new republic.”

A number of Saied’s political opponents and critics, including some Tunisians who had sought to challenge him in the October 6 ballot, are currently in jail or face trial.

Only two candidates — former member of parliament Zouhair Maghzaoui, 59, and Azimoun leader Ayachi Zammel — were pre-selected to run against Saied.

Last week, Human Rights Watch said Tunisian authorities “have prosecuted, convicted or imprisoned at least eight prospective candidates” for the upcoming vote.

Among those replaced Sunday were the ministers of employment, youth, agriculture and water resources, and health.

Unemployment in Tunisia stands at 16 percent, while the country suffers from water stress amid its sixth consecutive year of drought.

The North African country has faced mounting financial woes, with an increasingly impoverished middle class and debt levels at about 80 percent of its GDP.

Its economy is at a standstill with growth of 0.4 percent.