On the evening of May 25, Tunisian President Kais Saied made a surprise announcement of a partial reshuffle in the government, replacing two ministers and establishing a new institutional post to manage national security.
The reshuffle comes at the height of an upsurge in the securitarian clampdown imposed by the president on oppositions and civil society organizations, which has led over the past two weeks to the arrest of a dozen of human rights organization activists, journalists, and lawyers. The arrests are part of the increasingly frequent protests against the government, and especially against the authoritarian turn President Kais Saied has taken in Tunisian politics.
Last Friday, May 24, a demonstration was held in the capital where slogans against the president were loudly chanted by protesters, describing Saied as a dictator and calling for the revocation of a recent decree that allows the government a greater ability to crack down on political dissent and facilitate the arrests of those protesting against the line President Saied has imprinted on Tunisian politics and the economy.
Measures that have also led to concern from the European Union and the United States, which have expressly called for restraint by the Tunisian government in its crackdown on dissent, in what President Kais Saied has since described, however, as intolerable foreign interference in the internal affairs of the Tunisian government.
The Tunisian journalists’ union (the SNJT) has also, however, denounced the government’s gradual authoritarian turn and the judiciary’s tendency to indict a growing number of journalists guilty of criticizing the government’s line, claiming that more than 50 journalists have been detained over the past year for expressing critical views on government policy, then being accused of spreading fake news aimed at disrupting the constitutional order.
Instead, the government reshuffle resulted in the appointment of Khaled Nouri as the head of the Ministry of Interior, replacing Kamel Feki, Kamel Madouri to the head the Ministry of Social Affairs, replacing Malek Ezzahi, while Sufyan bin Sadiq was appointed as undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior with responsibility for the new post of Director of National Security.
All three are considered very close and loyal to President Kais Saied, while the president declined to provide any comment regarding the decision behind this reshuffle, as well as for the establishment of the new post for National Security within the Interior Ministry.
It seems quite clear how the cabinet reshuffle was brought about by the president’s dissatisfaction especially with the management of national security and the containment of the ongoing protests in the country and especially in the capital, where the tone of accusations toward the government is becoming more serious by the day. The replacement of Kamel Feki with Khaled Nouri is thus most likely motivated by the intention to implement a more incisive policy against opposition forces and to reduce the scale of protests, also establishing the new post of Under Secretary for National Security, now chaired by Sufyan bin Sadiq, who will be specifically tasked with managing the growing phenomenon of dissent.
Despite the growing number of protests, however, President Kais Saied’s popularity would still appear to be solid, while the oppositions, however vocal and persistent in expressing their opposition to the authoritarian drift imparted by the government, appear disorganized, divided and seemingly unable to counter the government’s pervasive action in suppressing dissent.
Kias Saied has succeeded in having the leaders of both the Islamic Ennahda Party and the Free Desturian Party arrested, considerably reducing the capacity of the main opposition parties, thereby paving his own way to compete with a greater chance of success in the presidential elections scheduled for later this year.
The main force of opposition to the Tunisian government thus remains at this stage the National Salvation Front coalition, led by Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, which includes many of the smaller political groups opposed to the government’s authoritarian drift. Members of the Front include the Islamist Ennahda party, the Al Amal party, Islamist parties Al Irada and Al Karama, as well as other minor formations of different ideological backgrounds but united by a shared condemnation of President Kais Saied’s policies. Aware of his own weakness and in an attempt to fuel further critical debate toward the government, Chebbi declared last March that he does not intend to run in the presidential elections unless at least some basic conditions are met by the authorities, including the reopening of Ennahda headquarters, the release of political prisoners, and above all, the guarantee of independence of the electoral commission that will monitor the elections. This last point is especially complex, as the constitutional amendments promoted by Kais Saied have given the president himself the power to appoint the members of the electoral commission, making it somewhat unlikely that guarantees of transparency and impartiality will be provided.
