In the run-up to Tunisia's presidential election, President Kais Saied carried out a major ministerial reshuffle on Sunday, August 25, less than three weeks after appointing Kamel Madouri, a former social affairs minister and senior civil servant, as prime minister. Madouri replaced Ahmed Hachani, who was dismissed after less than a year in the position.

In Tunis, many see this change as a sign of Saied's desire to tighten his grip on the government ahead of the elections scheduled for October 6. "He is cruising towards the presidency. He knows he's going to be re-elected, and he's not even disguising his intentions of using state resources to fund his pre-campaign efforts," said Hatem Nafti, a political scientist, essayist, and author of the book Tunisie : Vers un populisme autoritaire? (Tunisia: Towards an Authoritarian Populism?). Saied, who is seeking another term in office, is widely favored for re-election after the ousting of most of his actual and potential opponents.

Reacting on Sunday evening to criticism of the reshuffle's timing, Saied said that it was essential to distinguish between national security and the functioning of institutions on the one hand, and elections on the other. "Institutions are being paralyzed by those who wish to see the situation deteriorate," he stated. Anxious to defend his record, he maintained that successive crises had been "artificially provoked" by agents backed by foreign powers, whom he did not explicitly name.

This unexpected reshuffle comes at a time when Saied has been increasing his criticisms of the administration, which he intends to purge in the middle of the election season. "Ahmed Hachani's main mission was to purge the administration. The absence of a purge undoubtedly cost him his job," said Nafti. Shortly before Hachani's dismissal, Saied had accused the administration and the government of deliberately slowing down his political directives, denouncing a "criminal" plot against the government fomented by his opponents for electoral purposes.

Among the most significant changes in this reshuffle – which resulted in the replacement of 19 ministers and three secretaries of state – was the appointment of new ministers of defense and foreign affairs. Mohamed Ali Nafti, a diplomat by training and former secretary of state under a supervising minister between 2020 and 2021, has become Tunisia's new foreign minister. Khaled Shili, also a diplomat and ex-ambassador to Jordan, has been appointed defense minister.

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