Ghannouchi says democracy will prevail in 'Arab Spring' countries

The leader of Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamist party, Rachid Ghannouchi, has confirmed his belief that democracy will prevail in those countries that experienced the Arab Spring, and that dictatorships no longer have a place in the Arab world.

In an interview published on Thursday, Ghannouchi told the Washington Post newspaper that: “I believe democracy will succeed in Tunisia, but I also believe that it will succeed in the other Arab Spring countries. In our modern age – in the age of free information – I don’t think there is any place for dictatorships. You can see this very clearly in Egypt after the coup.”

When asked if he was concerned about the possibility of a military coup in Tunisia after the one in Egypt, Ghannouchi explained that: “Some people in the opposition hoped that what happened in Egypt would happen in Tunisia. But then when they saw the massacres on TV, the opposition started distancing themselves from the Egypt scenario. We have exported revolution – the Arab Spring – to Egypt, and we don’t want to import from Egypt a coup. I hope that with the success of the transition to democracy in Tunisia that we will export to Egypt a working democratic model.”

Ghannouchi added that although Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi had indeed made some mistakes, nothing justified the military coup, and neither Morsi nor his government had committed one massacre against the Egyptian people, nor did they imprison one journalist, as the coup regime has been doing since ousting the democratically elected leader and his government.