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Rached Ghannouchi, former leader of Ennahdha who claims to be the victim of a “coup” in Tunisia, embodies the quicksand of his Islamist-inspired party over the past decade.
As a result, he now finds it difficult to mobilize a divided leadership and tired supporters.
On Monday, the 80-year-old veteran camped for 12 hours outside parliament in Tunis, condemning as unconstitutional President Kais Saied’s sudden decision to grant himself executive power and suspend parliament for 30 days.
A longtime opposition figure, he was joined this week by a few hundred supporters, far from the thousands who celebrated his return from London after 20 years in exile after the fall of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during the Tunisian revolt of 2011.
Since the revolution, Ghannouchi, a strict Islamist for some and yet pragmatic who coexists with democracy for others, has been accused of bending with the wind to ensure his maintenance in power.
“Crystalize discontent”
Veteran Tunisian politician Rashed Ghannouchi, pictured here in Pakistan in 1991, first drew inspiration from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, before claiming a kinship with the Islamist model of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. By DIEGO ZAPATA (AFP / File) “He’s an old man in politics, with the skills of a chameleon,” said political scientist Selim Kharrat. “He has shown that he can adapt to all situations, even if it means renouncing his principles.”
He said that after 10 years in power, Ennahdha “crystallizes the dissatisfaction” of Tunisians at the heart of the simultaneous political, social, economic and health crises of the Maghreb state.
As speaker of parliament, he holds the second highest office in the country, but has one of the lowest approval ratings in the political class, according to polls.
Although he failed to secure an absolute majority, he still ensured Ennahdha’s status as a key player in every coalition since the revolution.
It allowed alliances with partners of convenience, such as the liberal Qalb Tounes party of businessman Nabil Karoui, pleading the cause of “consensus” in the name of democratic transition.
Author of fiery calls for Islamic Sharia law in the 1970s, he was first inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, before claiming a kinship with the Islamist model of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Since 2016, he has transformed Ennahdha into a strictly political movement, while presenting himself as a “Muslim democrat” defending conservative values without dogma.
But concessions have divided his camp.
Coming from a modest family in El Hamma, a small town on the south coast, Ghannouchi studied theology and philosophy, mainly in Cairo and Damascus.
After his return to Tunisia at the end of the 1960s, he founded in 1981 the “Movement of the Islamic tendency”, a party which would be renamed Ennahdha (Renaissance) eight years later.
“Paying for political mistakes”
Imprisoned twice for clandestine political activities, the founding president of Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba, even demanded the hanging of Ghannouchi.
Pardoned by Ben Ali in 1987, he was then prosecuted again after an electoral breakthrough, and finally went into exile in London in 1991.
It was there that he cultivated the image of an Islamic reformist and a “man of consensus”.
“He rubbed shoulders with all the European and Arab elite, both nationalist and Islamist,” said Ahmed Gaaloul, member of Ennahdha and former Minister of Youth and Sports.
But its flexibility and tactical moves have waned.
“Ennahdha’s electoral base has shrunk and it is divided internally,” according to Kharrat.
In 2020, around 100 influential members disclosed a letter calling for Ghannouchi’s resignation.
Kharrat said the politically weakened and physically fragile leader of Ennahdha was unable to resist Saied’s takeover.
“He is paying for his political mistakes,” he said.
Ennahdha under Ghannouchi for a long time blocked the formation of a constitutional court in Tunisia, the only institution which would today have the power to cancel the steps of the president.
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