Tunis — Environmental protection and waste-to-energy were the focus of a meeting between President Kais Saied and Prime Minister Kamel Madouri at Carthage Palace on Monday, according to a statement from the Presidency.

President Kais Saied stressed that «the preservation of the environment in Tunisia does not depend on the number of institutions, but on their effectiveness, as a healthy environment requires healthy institutions, and some institutions do not play their role properly and receive a lot of money from the state budget in vain.»

He added that preserving the environment requires not only new legislation, but also a shared sense of ownership by all citizens that they own a common part of the public space.

In this context, the President of the Republic recommended working on the production of energy from waste, which has been proven in several countries.

The Head of State also stressed that several issues, such as sub-contracting and the resumption of public service recruitment, must be addressed in a different way, as «half-measures» are no longer acceptable.

Every public servant has to internalise the expectations of the people and the State cannot be run today with a legitimacy that the people have revolted against," he was quoted as saying in the same statement.