Tunisian President’s Heath Improving After Day in Hospital

(Bloomberg) -- Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi’s health has improved a day after he was rushed to hospital, the presidency said in a statement Friday.

The 92-year-old leader, who was reported to have been in a critical condition when hospitalized, made a telephone call to his defense minister, it added.

Essebsi, who in 2014 became the country’s first freely elected president in decades, won on a pledge to unite a nation caught in a struggle between Islamists and secularists. A veteran diplomat, he came out of retirement in 2011 to become prime minister after Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s ouster, and later founded the party that’s a main power-broker and counterweight to the Islamist Ennahda.

His hospitalization, and reports of his death, added to the mood of uncertainty in Tunisia, coming as two suicide bombers struck the capital. The North African nation that gave rise to the Arab Spring movements has prided itself on setting up a vibrant democratic system, but it’s been hit by a series of terrorist attacks that have set back progress on reviving the economy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Samer Khalil Al-Atrush in Cairo at skhalilalatr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.