Erodgan-Ghannouchi collaboration fuels unrest in Tunisia

Nahla Abdelmonem

North Africa is experiencing totally new political conditions. This is especially true in Tunisia where there are protests against the facilities the Ennahda Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, is offering to help Turkey occupy Libya.

This is opening the door for fears over the political future of the North African state.

The presence of militias and security unrest in Libya endanger Tunisia’s security. This is particularly true with the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood at the top of the legislative power in this country.

Ennahda’s head, who is also the speaker of the Tunisian parliament, Rached Ghannouchi, views neutrality on Libya as a negative thing. He totally agrees with the Turkish position on Libya, regardless of the dangers this position poses to Libya’s security and territorial integrity.

The presence of a colonial power with an expansionist policy in Libya imperils Tunisia’s security, especially in the presence of a legislative power in the country that goes hand in hand with the agenda of this colonial power.

This is why Tunisia’s secular parties are stepping up their protests against Ghannouchi, the no. 1 ally for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in North Africa.

These parties are calling for withdrawing confidence from the parliament speaker and declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a “terrorist” organization.

Developments

The MPs of the Free Destourian Party move ahead with their sit-in in the main hall of the Tunisian parliament.

This forced Ghannouchi to move the sessions of the parliament to another hall, amid clashes with the members of the party.

Free Destourian Party Chairwoman Abir Moussi said on July 21 that Ennahda Party members had attacked her colleagues who are staging the sit-in.

She said those staging the sit-in call for withdrawing confidence from the parliament speaker. They also call for denying MPs accused of involvement in terrorism-related crimes entry into the parliament.