Tunisian President Kais Saied announced that he had suspended parliament and dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi late on Sunday.
Ennahda, the country's biggest political party, decried the move as a "coup d'etat".
Saied's suspension of parliament comes after a prolonged period of deadlock between the president, prime minister and legislature.
The news was met with both celebration and protest on the streets of Tunis and on social media.
Before Saied's announcement, thousands of Tunisians had marched in several cities protesting against Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party, criticising its government for failures in tackling the pandemic.