Tunisian President, Kais Saied on Thursday announced Ridha Garsalaoui’s nomination as the nation’s Interior Minister amid pressure to form a new government.
Gatekeepers News reports that Saied who pledged to protect rights and freedoms, appointed Garsalaoui, former national security adviser to the presidency, to oversee the interior ministry.
The new appointee is also a top-ranking former police official.
Gatekeepers News had reported that Saied on Sunday invoked a national emergency to seize control of the government, dismissing the Prime Minister and suspending the parliament.
On Monday, he also dismissed Defence Minister Ibrahim Bartaji and acting Justice Minister Hasna Ben Slimane.
“The state is not a puppet moved by strings, there are lobbies and corrupt individuals who have been pulling the strings from behind the curtains,” Saied said.
“The conditions at this historical moment forced me to take such exceptional measures.
“I tell you and the whole world that I am keen to implement the constitutional text and keen more than them on rights and freedoms.
“No one has been arrested. No one has been deprived of his rights but the law is fully applied.”
Tunisians still await the appointment of a new prime minister and a solution to the nation’s crisis.
United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken on Thursday said he had urged Saied to take action that would return the country “to the democratic path” and also urged the restoration of parliament.
“The intentions he expressed to me were to return Tunisia to that democratic path, and to act in a way that was consistent with the constitution,” Blinken said during an interview with Al Jazeera, referring to a conversation with Saied earlier this week.
“But of course, we have to look at the actions that the president takes, that Tunisia takes,” he said.
Meanwhile, Saied has accused 460 businessmen of owing 13.5 billion Tunisian dinars ($4.9bn) to the State.
The President cited the findings of a commission of inquiry into corruption under former strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
“This money must be returned to the Tunisian people,” he said, adding that he intends to offer the businessmen “judicial arbitration”.
Saied also asked traders and wholesalers to “lower prices” in a crisis-hit economy where soaring inflation has eaten away at the purchasing power of consumers.
The Tunisian President called for a revival of phosphate production, one of the country’s few natural resources.
Saied’s power garb has been welcomed by many Tunisians who are struggling to make ends meet and those fed up with the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The president on Wednesday evening announced the establishment of a crisis unit to manage surging COVID-19 cases as the nation’s fatality rate rose above 19,000.
