Summary:

On Sunday, 25 August 2024, Tunisian President Kais Saied announced a major transition in his administration including the replacement of 19 ministers in another noteworthy pre-election shakeup of the government. The latest shuffling of senior-level positions follows a change in Prime Ministers in early August when Kamel Madouri replaced Ahmed Hachani.

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Amongst those ministerial positions with new occupants are Minister of Defense, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Economy and Planning:

• Mohamed Ali Nafti replaces Nabil Ammar as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Nafti brings a long and varied career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with diplomatic postings in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia as well as multiple senior positions at the Ministry in Tunis. Nafti was dismissed from a senior position in July 2021 shortly after President Saied began his effort to revise the constitution, a process many have described as a coup d’etat.
• Khaled Shili replaces Imed Memmich as Minister of Defense. Shili comes to the Defense Ministry with a 30-year career in diplomatic and foreign policy roles both abroad and in Tunis. In addition to serving as Ambassador to Jordan, Shili has held various positions focused on international and regional cooperation.
• Samir Abdelhafidh will replace Feryel Ouerghi Sebai as the Minister of Economy and Planning. Abdelhafidh had most recently served in a Secretary of State position under the now former minister. He is a long-standing professor of economics at multiple universities.

Other noteworthy appointments included:

• Riad Choud takes the position of Minister of Employment and Training
• Mustapha al Ferjani takes the position of Minister of Health
• Nourredine Ennouri takes the position of Minister of Education
• Sofiene Hemissi takes the position of Minister of Communications Technologies
• Sofiene Tekaya takes the position of Minister of Tourism

Given the scale of the changes, several key ministerial positions notably remain unchanged, including:

• Minister of the Interior Kamal Ennouri
• Minister of Justice Leila Jaffel
• Minister of Finance Sihem Boughdiri

Outlook: 

With little explanation accompanying President Saied’s announcement of the changes to his administration, the particular motivations for the various decisions remain a mystery.

While some past decisions by the President to unceremoniously dismiss ministers could be more clearly tied to recent developments, the reasons for the latest purge are less clear.

Among those dismissed are now former Minister of Foreign Affairs Nabil Ammar, who was seemingly a faithful steward of the President’s policy agenda abroad, defending Tunisia’s sovereignty in a way that often echoed the President’s own rhetoric.

The latest dismissals indicate that President Saied is likely as isolated as he has been at any point, with few persistent voices speaking into his decision-making over a meaningful length of time. The persistent rotation of senior ministers has likely caused the President’s inner circle to shrink, leading to even more unilateral and unchallenged decision-making from Carthage.

While these conditions will likely facilitate the President’s re-election in the short-term, it will continue to erode the effectiveness of long-term decision-making and policy execution at a particularly vulnerable moment for Tunisia’s economic and political systems.

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