Tunisian Prime Minister Hisham El-Mechichi sacked Interior Minister Tawfiq Sharafeddine, who was nominated for this position by President Qais Said, which is the third dismissal in the Mechanically-appointed government.
A brief statement by the Prime Minister said that Al-Mushechy decided to exempt the Minister of Interior, provided that the Prime Minister would supervise the Ministry on behalf of the Minister, pending the appointment of an Interior Minister, without revealing the reasons for the dismissal.
Political parties expressed their refusal to appoint former lawyer Tawfiq Sharaf al-Din as Minister of Interior in the Mishichi government when it was formed last August, and believed that he was close to President Qais Saeed and helped him in his election campaign.
Al-Mushashi dismissed Culture Minister Walid Al-Zaidi - who is affiliated with Saeed - last October, following a dispute over his rejection of decisions related to the Coronavirus, and he tasked Minister of Tourism Habib Ammar with running the ministry's affairs.
Last month, Environment Minister Mustafa Laroui dismissed, against the background of the Italian waste issue, after customs authorities seized the coastal city of Sousse (east) last July, containers containing toxic waste coming from Italy, which do not match the standards of importing waste in the world.
It is expected that the prime minister will make a partial cabinet reshuffle in the coming stage, in light of demands from the parties that support him to include political figures in the government, which is rejected by the opposition parties and the presidency.