Tunisia’s foreign ministry summons U.S. envoy

(Reuters) -Tunisia’s overseas ministry stated on Friday it summoned an official from the U.S. embassy after Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised considerations about Tunisia’s democracy.

Tunisia’s International Minister Othman Jerandi advised U.S. appearing chargé d’affaires Natasha Franceschi that the assertion represented an unacceptable “interference within the nationwide inside affairs”, the ministry stated in an announcement.

Blinken expressed considerations about Tunisia’s democracy on Thursday after President Kais Saied launched a brand new structure giving himself much more powers, however the broad response amongst Western democracies was muted.

“Tunisia has skilled an alarming erosion of democratic norms over the previous yr and reversed most of the Tunisian individuals’s hard-won positive aspects since 2011,” Blinken stated then, referring to the 2011 revolution that launched democracy.

The brand new structure was endorsed in a referendum the president held on Monday, a yr after Saied moved to close down the elected parliament and begin ruling by decree.

(Reporting by Moataz Mohamed; Modifying by Cynthia Osterman)