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Tunisia: Storm clouds gathering for Ghannouchi and Essebsi

October 20, 2016 at 3:50 am

There has been much talk in Tunisia about the existence of a silence crisis between the two most powerful figures in Tunisia; Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi and head of Ennahda Rashid Ghannouchi. Despite both men’s denial of this, and Ghannouchi’s insistence that his relationship with Essebsi is good, these reassurances are designed preserve the alliance between Ennahda and Nidaa Tounes.

During the Shura Council’s latest meeting, Ghannouchi expressed his belief that the recent governor appointments were “marred by flaws”, stressing his desire to address this during the next phase “through dialogue and consensus”. This is an indicator that the movement is uncomfortable, as the appointments occurred without consulting the movement, who only managed to get one governor, as their size was not taken into consideration, which angered the Ennahda members.

This anger is in a politically uncomfortable context and is not reassuring for Ennahda, which is living under the impact of conflict between its members regarding the assessment of the results of the alliance with Nidaa Tounes. There have been strong Ennahda voices calling for the review of the relationship between the movement and its main ally. Such voices include the voice of former deputy head of the movement, Abdelhamid Jelassi, who played an important role in the reorganisation, who warned against what he described of encroachment of Nidaa Tounes. He also considered the modification regarding the governors “a gateway to the return of the dissolved Democratic Constitutional Rally and finding a solution to the crisis for Nidaa Tounes’ successive crises in an attempt to use the state for the benefit of the party.”

There is now a fear of Nidaa Tounes members trying to export their problems to Ennahda in order to drown the movement in turbulences and problems it is not responsible for creating. The number of Ennahda members who have reservations regarding the means by which to manage the relationship with its main partner in governance has increased. Many of them clearly question who is actually benefitting from the alliance: Has Ennahda brought the others into its vital strategic space or has it found itself serving the goals of the stronger half in Nidaa Tounes?

Questioning the feasibility of the alliance in its current form has been on going within the wing known as the “hawks, but the new issue is that the head of the movement, Sheikh Ghannouchi, has started to question the true intentions of his partners in government and authority. After he put all his eggs in Essebsi’s basket, and by doing so, he entered into a feud with part of his movement. He firmly defended this alliance inside and outside Tunisia, but today he has found himself in an uncomfortable position, as not an occasion goes by that President Essebsi stresses e is against political Islam movements and that he convinced Ghannouchi of the democratic option and the need to commit to the Tunisia’s distinctiveness, or what he calls “Tunisian Islam”. He has also repeatedly said that he “doesn’t owe Ennahda anything” and, instead, they are indebted to him, as well as not being an ally to the Islamists, but that they became partners in government as a result of the elections and due to his desire to provide stability. He has also said that he convinced the West of the need to include Ennahda in the government after the revolution, assuring them that it was a moderate movement.

Essebsi’s justificatory discourse cause Ghannouchi a kind of embarrassment and discomfort, and it feeds into the suspicions of the palace and the government heading towards unilateralism, as leaders of the Ennahda believe. There are also suspicions of deliberately concealing information from them and the keenness to downsize the movement’s weight and influence within the state institutions. In addition to this, there have been fewer occasions on which the president invites Ghannouchi to discuss main issues and decisions with him, which has driven Ghannouchi to openly criticise some of the government’s actions.

We cannot rush and say that the honeymoon is over between the two sheikhs, but there is no doubt that storm clouds are accumulating in their skies and that a time when both parties are forced to review their tactics and clarify their visions and considerations is fast approaching. Yes, the two sides share a bed, but each has its own dreams and agenda.

Translated from Al-Alaraby Al-Jadeed, 19 October 2016

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.