Ghannouchi is expected to lead a national alliance against the coup in Tunisia

At dawn on 26 July last year, the Speaker of the Tunisian Parliament, Rached Ghannouchi, stood in front of a tank blocking the door to the building. This was not just a passing moment, but the foundation of a principled position without expectation of results and repercussions; a position on the coup instigated by President Kais Saied against the democratic path, legitimacy and constitutional institutions. Images of the old man who had just recovered from Covid-19 went viral as he spent the whole night in front of parliament and contacting party leaders and organisations, calling on them to save the democratic path and not to have high hopes for the coup.

Ghannouchi does not say that the democratic path was successful, and does not deny that there was a failure in development and the economy. However, he does say that democracy fixes itself.

Opposition to Saied’s coup started off weak and hesitant; then the mist cleared, the enthusiasm was extinguished, and the false promises and slogans were exposed. Those who supported it in the beginning dispersed, and only a few were left. As rejection spread domestically, foreign condemnation also grew. Saied faced the kind of isolation that some dictatorial regimes had experienced before him, with tragic results.

The Tunisian president is still trying to move forward and justifies his policy failures by claiming that his enemies are plotting against his measures, which he believes are pioneering. People have noted the general boycott of the online consultation that he called for, through which he wants to impose a fait accompli by claiming that the people are with him and his political vision is widely accepted. In one of his meetings with the prime minister, he cited some initial results from the consultation: 82 per cent of Tunisians, he claimed, support a presidential system; and 89 per cent support the withdrawal of powers from parliamentarians. These are, without doubt, imaginary statistics given the people’s reluctance to participate in the consultation process. Saied himself finally admitted last Thursday that the consultation is slowing down, which he attributed to technical problems and his opponents’ conspiracies.

Saied’s participation in last month’s EU-African Union Summit in Brussels was, according to observers, a failure and even insulting to Tunisia’s image. He gained nothing personally, and there were no obvious economic gains for Tunisia with the country going through a financial crisis that threatens its stability.

The meeting of the US ambassador with Tunisia’s Minister of Defence and the Secretary-General of the Tunisian General Labour Union, Noureddine Taboubi (and maybe with Rached Ghannouchi), without meeting Saied, is understood by some as the beginning of the preparations to close the arc of the coup. Taboubi, who received a congratulatory message from Saied when he was re-elected to his position with the union, addressed the president directly and invited him to participate in a national dialogue to include all political organisations and parties. He assured Saied that reform will not happen without integration between the political, social and economic elements in Tunisia.

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Observers remember Saied’s previous rejection of the union’s call for national dialogue. In fact, the president attacked the move and said that it was “neither a dialogue nor was it national.” This prompted the former Secretary-General of the Union, Hussein Al-Abbasi, who led the national dialogue in 2013, to respond strongly that his organisation would not work in popular committees, a reference to Saied’s project based on coordination.

Seven months after his coup, during which Saied has used slogans, threats and insults, as well as kidnappings, military trials and travel bans imposed on his opponents, he is now struggling and getting tenser. There are disputes within the presidential palace, especially after the resignation of the director of his office and keeper of his secrets, Nadia Okasha.

The president is now feeling the walls closing in on him, so he is directing more accusations and inciting the people against his opponents. Perhaps the most worrying thing is that he has used the term “cleansing”, which suggests physical liquidation. “Cleansing the country will require cleansing the judiciary,” he told the minister of communications last month. He may resort to incitement to violence in order to break his isolation, as he did in December and again on 6 February, when only a few people responded to his calls.

Now we await the announcement of a national alliance next week built around the principles of democracy, an equitable economy and freedom. Opponents of his coup still view Kais Saied as a threat to the structure of the state, freedom and the democratic path.

Ghannouchi believes that freedom is an inclusive principle for all, and does not see his movement as a guardian of democracy or patriotism; rather, it is an active partner in confronting the coup and defending the constitutional institutions. He expressed his willingness to resign from his role as parliamentary speaker if it would help to resolve the crisis. He also called on Saied and offered him joint concessions to save the country from the current crisis.

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Tunisia deserves an internal solution in which the efforts of all citizens, including politicians, human rights activists, intellectuals, media professionals and trade unionists, are combined. It is rich in skills and human resources, and it has enough to enable everyone to have a decent standard of living without the need for foreign aid. The more stubborn Kais Saied is, the more the foreign pressure increases and the more the interventions of embassies and human rights organisations intensify. Foreign states have invested a lot in Tunisia since 2011 in support of the democratic path, which they feel allows them to intervene not only to protect democracy, but also to protect their interests.

Before all of this, though, Tunisia needs resolve and sincere intentions, and for its politicians to be free of selfishness, narcissism, deception and fraud. Tunisian politics must not remain an absurdity with roles exchanged between clowns and opportunists.

This article first appeared in Arabic in Arabi21 on 28 February 2022

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