Tunisia’s ruling Nidaa Tounes party said on Friday it had frozen the prime minister’s membership in the latest escalation in a row between the prime minister and the president’s son, Reuters noted.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said in May that the president’s son, Hafedh Caid Essebsi, had destroyed the ruling Nidaa Tounes party and that the crisis in the party has affected state institutions.

“The party decided to freeze the membership of Chahed”, Nidaa Tounes said in a statement.

But the moderate Islamist party Ennahda rejected calls to dismiss Chahed and said the exit of the prime minister would hit stability at a time when the country needed economic reforms.