Panafrican News Agency

Tunisian President sacks PM, suspends parliament

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisia's President Kais Saeid on Sunday sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and suspened parliament following violent demonstrations in several cities during which protesters expressed their anger at the deterioration of the health, economic and social situations in the North African country.

At the call of the "July 25 Movement", launched on social on the occasion of the 64th anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic, thousands of Tunisians, most of them young, poured into the streets defying the COVID-19 protocols and scorching heat of 50 degrees in some regions.

Protesters chanted slogans calling for the dissolution of parliament and early elections.

They said that those responsible for the current situation in the country must be held to account.

Security forces were deployed especially in Tunis where police checkpoints blocked all streets leading to the main artery of the capital, Avenue Bourguiba, bastion of the Tunisian revolution which 10 years ago brought down the old regime and triggered the Arab Spring.

The Prime Minister earlier last week dismissed health Fawzi Mehdi as cases of COVOD-19 ballooned to more than 570,000 and the death toll reached than 18,500 on Sunday.

The Director General of Health, Dr. Ben Salah, has also resigned.

-0- PANA MA 26July2021