The President of Tunisia, Kais Saied, yesterday dismissed Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani, appointed just a year ago, and appointed the Minister of Social Affairs, Kamel Maduri, as head of government. This was announced by the Tunisian presidency in a brief statement published in the evening on its Facebook profile, accompanied by an image of the meeting between Saied and Maduri at the Carthage Palace, the president's residence. Before being appointed Minister of Social Affairs in May, Maduri was president of the National Health Insurance Fund and president of the National Pension and Social Security Fund. He is a researcher and specialist in Community Law, Institutional Law and International Relations, reports the Kapitalis news portal.
A year ago, in August 2023, the president removed the then prime minister, Najla Buden, from office, appointed less than two years earlier, when she became the first woman to hold the position in the country's history. The opposition criticized the decision, adding that it was "not surprised by the style of the current regime, intent on changing officials overnight". The opposition, largely united around the National Salvation Front (NSF), denounced the increased repression and called for Saied's resignation, particularly in view of the wave of arrests of opponents, activists and journalists, as well as the turnout in the constitutional referendum and elections held since then in Tunisia.
Saied assumed additional powers in 2021 when he closed the elected Parliament, dominated by the Islamic Ennahda party, and continued to rule by decree, before assuming authority over the judiciary, an action for which he assumed all state powers, considered by his critics to be a self-coup. The president has set the presidential elections for October 6, the date on which his term expires.
