Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi was sworn into office Wednesday as Tunisia's president for a four-year term in front of the newly elected Parliament. Essebsi won 55.68 percent of the votes in the Tunisian presidential elections held on Dec. 21 over incumbent Moncef Marzouki, his only rival, who served as interim president since 2011. Essebsi is the first freely elected president after the 2011 revolution that led to the deposing of former president Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali and sparked a string of uprisings across the Arab world. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1981 to 1986 and as Prime Minister from February to December 2011. He is also the founder of the Nidaa Tounes political party. His Nidaa Tounes party beat Nahda, the main Islamist grouping, winning a plurality of seats, though not a majority, in the 2014 parliamentary election.
