Mehdi Jomaa

Mehdi Jomaa (Arabic: مهدي جمعة; born 21 April 1962) is a Tunisian engineer and was the acting Prime Minister of Tunisia from 29 January 2014¹ to 6 February 2015.² He was chosen on 14 December 2013.³ Jomaa was Minister of Industry in the Ali Laarayedh government.⁴

Early life

He was born on 21 April 1962 in Mahdia, Tunisia. He graduated from the National Engineering School, Tunis in 1998.⁵ He is an engineer by profession. He also holds a postgraduate degree in structural mechanics and in modeling.⁵ He spent most of his career at Hutchinson and at Total.⁵ He is married and has five children.⁶ He was a general manager at Hutchinson Aerospace when he quit his job.⁷

Political life

After Hamadi Jebali asked him to be part of his government, he quit his professional career⁸ to contribute to the country's transition into democracy⁷ after the crackdown of government in the . He did not belong to any political party; he was an . On 13 March 2013, he became Minister of Industry in a coalition government led by after Ali Laarayedh appealed him to be part of his government. After the assassination of Mohamed Brahmi in July, there had been a political deadlock. To ease the situation, parties entered a national dialogue which was held for weeks; on 14 December 2013, both ruling and opposition parties agreed to choose Jomaa as the interim Prime Minister until the . His government was . The leftist coalition doubted whether he could handle the present situation. His caretaker government carried out the process for new elections and attempted to deal with the economic issues.