For the third time since the overthrow of the 23-year regime of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has a new government.
Interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Sebsi, 84, swore in the new Cabinet Monday.
Four ministers who resigned the week prior were replaced, and none of the 22 ministers who were named are career politicians.
In addition, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry announced that the political police and state security apparatus had been dissolved. The two had served as a domestic spy agency, and enjoyed wide powers. Its officers suppressed opposition to Ben Ali's regime by monitoring other politicians and journalists, had the power to arrest people at will and were accused of torturing detainees.
Their destruction, a core demand in the grassroots uprising that toppled Ben Ali, was labeled “a dream come true for everyone” by Ali Larayedh, a member of the Islamist Ennahda movement and a 14-year political prisoner, according to Reuters news service.
Despite the protests that have continued since January, Sebsi said upon taking office on February 27 that his priority was security.
“Without it we can't have economic development or a political agenda,” he told a news conference. “We want foreigners to visit. People do not invest their money if they are not convinced the situation is calm.” He added that the protesters who massed in the central square of the capital city of Tunis on Friday have since gone home, and the square is now empty.
"They are not there anymore, they left spontaneously and that proves they trust me. I will not betray their trust," Sebsi said.
None of the ministers in the new government will be allowed to run for office in future elections.
It was Tunisia's uprising -- which began January 14 -- that ignited the regionwide upheavals that so far have toppled not only Ben Ali but also the 31-year regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Grassroots opposition forces also currently threaten the 41-year dictatorship of Libyan Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.