This story has been updated.
Tunisian President Kais Saied dismissed the country’s prime minister and froze parliament for 30 days on Sunday, posing a major test to the young democracy and escalating a political crisis that has built for months. Opponents condemned the move as an attempted coup.
Saied announced that he was firing Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and that he and a new prime minister would take up executive authority. Under Tunisia’s 2014 constitution, executive power is shared by the president, prime minister and the parliament.
