Al-Nedaa cancels freeze of el-Shahid membership: A new front expected against el-Nahda

Sarah Rashad

In a quick response to the calls for reunification launched by Tunisian President and president of Nedaa Tunis Party during a party election conference last Saturday, the participants agreed to cancel the freeze of Youssef el-Shahid’s membership which was suspended in September 2018.

Essebsi recommendation

The members of the Central Committee of the Party, explained reasons behind the abrupt decision. Anas Al-Hattab, one of the members, said in a media statement, “The lifting of the freeze of the membership of el-Shahid came at the recommendation of the founding president of the party Baji Caid Essebsi and the conference ratified it. Meanwhile, the leader, Manji al-Harbawi, said that Yusuf al-Shahid can now return to Al-Nidaa after he was prevented from practicing his work there.

El-Shahid was banned from practicing his party work because of his crisis with Al-Nidaa. He earlier refused to resign from the government in exchange for pushing Nidaa Tunis towards changing the government. Because of these contradictory positions, al-Nidaa considered el-Shahid a rebel.

On the other hand, el-Shahid began to exploit the internal differences of el-Nida Party in order to have his own supporters and break away from the Al-Nida Party. They even formed a new entity led by el-Shahid and titled the Movement for Long Live Tunisia. The movement even appeared in advanced positions in pre-election polls in October and November.

Because of the atmosphere of open disagreement between el-Shahid and his old party, observers describe the cancellation of el-Shahid’s membership as a snap.

El-Shahid between party and movement

“I do not think that el-Shahid will return to Nedaa Tunis,” general coordinator of Long Live Tunisia said. “The important thing in the step is that el-Nidaa party proves to itself that el-Shahid is not carrying out a coup d’état or is belonging to Al-Nahdaa party,” he told a news conference.

During his speech at the opening of the party’s electoral conference last Saturday, Essebsi launched an initiative to unite el-Nidaa party with the political forces close to its ideas or dissidents to form an anti-Renaissance front. However, he stressed during his speech that the move is not aimed at excluding the renaissance party.

However, the leaders of the party stressed – on the sidelines of the conference to the media – that el-Nidaa seeks through the conference to consolidate the rule of non-cooperation finally with el-Nahda (Renaissance) or any forces with religious backgrounds.

El-Nidaa had entered into an alliance with the Renaissance since 2014, and lasted 4 years to cut any cooperation by the end of last year, against the background of the crisis of government change.

In the meantime, el-Nidaa Party expressed regret for periods of cooperation with al-Nahda, accusing the movement of involvement in terrorism cases.