The interim president, Foued Mebazaa, replaced Mr Ghannouchi with Beji Caid Essebsi, 84, a foreign minister under Mr Ben Ali's predecessor, Habib Bourguiba. The new prime minister announced a new government made up largely of technocrats with no links to the old regime and denounced Mr Ben Ali's presidency as a "dark period as a result of the unhealthy practices of a criminal gang". He said that the government wanted to make a definitive break with the former regime, restore the prestige of the state, re-establish order and security and pull the economy back "from the abyss". The forthcoming elections, he said, would for the first time in Tunisia's history be wholly credible and transparent. The 1959 constitution would be suspended and all institutions stemming from it dissolved, allowing the country to make a new start. All those from the previous regime guilty of crimes would be brought to justice, starting with Mr Ben Ali, who, he said, had committed "high treason" (although he added that not all members of the former ruling party were corrupt or subject to reproach). Opposition parties, including the newly legalised Islamist party, Hizb al-Nahda, welcomed the new caretaker cabinet. Whether it will satisfy protesters on the streets remains to be seen, especially if, as seems likely, it fails to produce quick results in terms of jobs and wages.

In one of its first acts Mr Essebsi's government abolished the state security administration, which ran the political police who were responsible for many of the human rights abuses of the previous regime. It also laid out what it called a "road map to democracy". The proposal is that a commission (the Commission for the Achievement of the Objectives of the Revolution and the Democratic Transition), established on March 2nd and made up of national figures, politicians, representatives of national associations and members of civil society groups, will prepare for elections on July 24th to a national constituent assembly. This assembly would rewrite the constitution (almost certainly to reduce the powers of the president and increase those of parliament and the prime minister) and prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections to be held at a later, so far unspecified, date. This road map appeared to enjoy broad support from political parties and civil society groups (including the Council for the Protection of the Revolution) as well as the backing of the army, which has, so far at least, seemed content to hold the ring for the politicians and to act, in the words of the head of the army, General Rachid Ben Ammar, as "the guarantor of the country, the people and the revolution". One great virtue of the road map is that it avoids a rush to early elections for a new parliament and president, gives time for a fuller debate on reform of the constitution and provides political parties, most of which are new, the space to organise themselves and make themselves known to the public. As part of the proposal, Mr Mebazaa will stay on as interim president until July 24th, even though this exceeds the 60-day limit for an interim president in the constitution (although this no longer has any credibility).