Ennahda seeks reunion with Tunisia’s Essebsi

Doaa Emam

The leader of Ennhada Movement Rached Ghannouchi talks about the importance of resuming dialogue with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, two months after Essebsi terminated political accord with the pro-Muslim Brotherhood movement.

The dialogue, Ghannouchi says, should be focused on major issues in Tunisia at present to help the North African state move ahead toward the required democratic transition.

Ennhada Movement has warned, meanwhile, against attempts to sow the seeds of tension between it and the Tunisian presidency. The presence of different points of view, the movement added, does not mean that we want to cut off ties with the president.

Tunisian political analyst Ahmed al-Nazif said Ennhada had learned a lesson from its past mistakes.

“The movement now works to be in accord with the ruling elite, instead of working to replace it,” al-Nazif said.

He said the major dreams of the Islamist movement had already crashed like a house of cards, especially after the 1990s. Al-Nazif added that major dreams like the establishment of an Islamic caliphate, applying Islamic law or forcing society to adhere to the rules of the Islamic religion are no longer important for the Islamist movement.

“The Islamists now work only to be part of the ruling elite,” al-Nazif said. “They try to do this by strengthening their economic base in society.”

He noted that the Islamist movement had benefited a lot from the growth of the services sector as well as from crises in the agricultural and industrial sectors.

They used these conditions, he said, in building a flexible economic network. They also benefited, he added, from the flow of funds from outside Tunisia to them.

Al-Nazif told al-Marjie that accord with the Tunisian president was an important item on Ennhada’s agenda in 2014.

He said the alliance between Ennhada and the ruling elite is no longer of a political nature. He noted that this alliance is now assuming economic; social; security and bureaucratic forms.

“This alliance is even evolving into a new type of integration,” al-Nazif said. “This integration can only collapse with the collapse of the ruling elite in Tunisia.”