Ghannouchi’s dubious contacts cause anger in Tunisia

Sara Wahid

Anger keeps piling up in Tunisia against Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi who is the head of the Ennahda Movement and Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia.

Dubious contacts

The anger boils down to contacts between the speaker and some terrorist groups in Libya.

These contacts are giving rise to public calls for questioning Ghannouchi. Whether the parliament speaker will be investigated against the background of theses contacts is not certain.

Personal agenda

On May 8, Chairperson of the Free Destourian Party, Abeer Moussa, said Ghannouchi had refused to be questioned.

“This shows that he had personal interests to serve by making dubious contacts with foreign groups,” she added.

She warned against overlooking the actions of the parliament speaker and his movement.

Moussa revealed that her request for discussing Ghannouchi’s contacts with foreign groups was turned down by the Tunisian parliament.

Anger

Tunisian activist Riyad Grad said Ghannouchi should be investigated for making contacts with the head of the so-called Libyan Supreme Council Khaled al-Meshri.

“Ghannouchi also holds doubtful contacts with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” Grad said.

He added that the sorry thing is that the parliament refuses to discuss these contacts.

“The parliament will not likely question its speaker,” Grad told The Reference.

He expected anger to keep piling up on Tunisian streets against Ghannouchi and his movement in the coming period.

Silence

Ghannouchi held phone talks with al-Meshri a few days ago, violating all diplomatic rules in his country. This caused anger to spread on the streets of Tunisia.

To gloss over the event, Ennahda issued a statement in which it said Ghannouchi had held talks with parliament heads in Arab Maghreb states.