Former Tunis governor Kamal Feki was given the submit, days after mass opposition protests passed off within the nation.
Tunisian President Kais Saied has named Kamal Feki as his new inside minister, hours after Taoufik Charfeddine resigned from the submit amid a crackdown on outstanding opposition figures.
Saied issued two decrees on Friday, the primary eradicating Charfeddine and a second appointing Feki, the previous governor of Tunis, as head of the Ministry of Inside, the presidency mentioned in a press launch in a single day.
Feki, considered one of Saied’s staunchest supporters, refused to grant a protest allow to the opposition Salvation Entrance coalition, saying that its leaders have been concerned in plotting towards state safety. Nonetheless, the Inside Ministry allowed them to protest.
A former lawyer, Charfeddine was a key determine within the election marketing campaign that propelled the beforehand little-known Saied to the presidency in 2019.
He was seen as one of many closest Tunisian officers to the president however had in latest months appeared much less ceaselessly in public.
Talking to reporters in feedback broadcast on native media, Charfeddine referred to the dying of his spouse final yr and his must take care of his kids.
Saied has taken growing management over safety forces since July 2021 when he dismissed the federal government of the nation’s former prime minister Hichem Mechichi. Saied shut down the parliament and moved to rule by decree earlier than writing a brand new structure that he handed final yr.
Charfeddine had additionally served as inside minister beneath Mechichi, who sacked him in January 2021 as relations between the president and prime minister broke down. Saied reappointed him after dismissing Mechichi and seizing most powers.
Crackdown
Over latest weeks, Tunisian authorities have arrested outstanding opposition figures who accuse Saied of a coup, charging them with conspiring towards state safety.
Police have additionally carried out a crackdown on African refugees missing residence permits, with rights teams accusing them of detaining tons of and turning a blind eye to racist assaults.
Final month, Charfeddine was at Saied’s aspect as Tunisia confronted a world outcry over a tirade by the president towards unlawful refugees from sub-Saharan Africa.
“There isn’t any query of permitting anybody in an unlawful scenario to remain in Tunisia,” the president mentioned in considered one of his videotaped conferences with the minister.
“I cannot permit the establishments of the state to be undermined or the demographic composition of Tunisia to be modified.”
