Tunisia’s President Kais Saied Approves New Government

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied approved a new government, less than two weeks after he appointed a new prime minister, the first female prime minister for Tunisia and for an Arab country. The announcement of the new Cabinet came on Monday, with a swearing-in ceremony broadcast on state television, Al Jazeera reported.

The new Cabinet assembled by Tunisian Prime Minister Najla Bouden Romdhane  will answer to Saied, who announced last month that he will rule by decree, which allows him to run the country while suspending part of the country’s constitution. That announcement came nearly three months after he fired the government and suspended parliament, and assumed executive authority in a move his critics have called a coup. Saied wants to amend the 2014 constitution, which he will then submit to a popular referendum.

Many members of the new cabinet are political neophytes, coming from academia or who were civil servants.

Romdhane, 63, a university engineer who has worked with the World Bank, was relatively unknown at the time of her appointment and has no real government experience.