The two highest leaders of the Tunisian Islamo-conservative Ennahda party, Mondher Ounissi, acting president of the movement, and Abdelkrim Harouni, president of the shura council (its internal parliament), were arrested on Tuesday evening, September 5, and placed in custody. Earlier in the morning, another former party official, Hamadi Jebali, head of the Tunisian government from December 2011 to February 2013, was interviewed for several hours before being released. A new blow for the formation, undermined by internal dissension and collective resignations since the coup by President Kaïs Saïed, on July 25, 2021.
“Ennahda’s strategy of repression is different from those of the old regimes, because it targets the leadership and not the base. The goal is above all not to eradicate Ennahda, because that didn’t work, but to domesticate it by emptying it of its popular roots and its protest dimension,” said Hamza Meddeb, researcher at the Carnegie Middle East think tank. Center. A task all the easier for the authorities, as the party is in crisis.
Weakened by ten years of exercising power within several government alliances, Ennahda lost two-thirds of its electorate before becoming a privileged target of the regime. Rached Ghannouchi, its historic leader, was arrested in April, joining a long list of opponents and leaders of the Islamo-conservative movement already imprisoned. The day after his arrest, the party’s premises were closed by decision of the Minister of the Interior and its gatherings were banned.
The movement has since struggled to get out of the rut. Appointed interim president, Mondher Ounissi has positioned himself in favor of a renewal of management through the organization of a congress announced in October and a call for dialogue with Kaïs Saïed. But his initiatives are highly contested internally. “Ounissi is not known, he is not one of the historical leaders,” recalls Hamza Meddeb.
« Purifier l’administration »
Could a rapprochement with power nevertheless be possible in the run-up to the presidential election of October 2024? The question is open. “It would be new in Tunisia, but not in the Arab world,” said the researcher. In Algeria or Jordan, the Islamists have kept a certain distance, without ever delegitimizing the power in place. »
Nothing says that Kais Saïed is in favor of it. The president has been saying for a month that he wants to “purify the administration” of those who have “infiltrated” it since the Islamists came to power. Former minister Abdelkrim Harouni and ex-prime minister Hamadi Jebali were questioned about appointments within the administration during their respective terms.
Mondher Ounissi was placed in police custody following the opening of an investigation linked to the leak of a voice recording – the veracity of which he denies – in which he accused relatives of Rached Ghannouchi of not serve only their financial and political interests. The charges against him are still not known, contributing to further complicate his position in relation to the power in place.
In this deleterious climate, between division and repression, “the idea of ??organizing a congress is clearly called into question”, emphasizes Hamza Meddeb: “At the same time, how could this be done with people in prison or the stranger? It wasn’t serious. »
Since July 25, 2021 and the suspension of parliamentary activities by Kaïs Saïed, more than twenty opponents have been arrested and charged with conspiracy against state security, corruption or money laundering. Dozens of other people, former senior officials, activists, lawyers, judges or journalists, are still being prosecuted, banned from traveling or have been forced into exile.
