July 16, 2015
Tunisia’s increasing
security challenges—particularly after the Sousse and Bardo attacks—have
overshadowed discussions about Nidaa Tounesʼs internal disagreements. But lingering disputes within the
leading party over its leadership are likely to undermine the government’s
ability to address pressing security and economic challenges. Two years
after its formation, this party won both parliamentary and presidential
elections, despite the diverse and even conflicting ideological roots of its
founding members. The Nidaa Tounes alliance—which includes a medley of
leftists-unionists and conservative oligarchs—has persisted due to its shared
hostility toward Ennahda and its post-revolution governing allies.
Increasingly, however, internal power plays are igniting strife.
Signs of internal discord
first appeared in December 2013 when Hafedh Caid Essebsi and Mohamed Gherieni,
the last secretary-general of the Constitutional Rally for Democracy (RCD), Ben
Ali’s former ruling party, were tasked with administering the party’s local and
regional offices. These appointments quickly prompted a series of resignations
in protest over the dominance of former RCD figures, amid allegations they were
using “corrupt money.” Another round of disputes occurred prior to the 2014
parliamentary and presidential elections over claims that Hafedh, who had been
nominated to head the Tunis list, was pushing to
include more RCD
loyalists in the alliance.
But Nidaa Tounes’s
decision to work hand-in-hand with its main political opponent, Ennahda,
exacerbated existing disagreements and created more power struggles within its
ranks. A third interest group, led by Hafedh Caid Essebsi, emerged after
veteran conservatives of the Ben Ali and Bourguiba eras agreed to include
Ennahda in the government. This group brought together allies within the
party—including parliamentarians Khmeis Ksila, Abd Aziz Kotti, and Khaled
Chouket, all of whom strongly disagreed with the government’s new stance. Kotti
even called Nidaa Tounes’s post-elections policy a “stab in the back of
Tunisians.”
This Hafedh-led faction
has been able to tap into the broader distrust of the leftist-unionist
leadership to make its own demands for power. While in charge of the party’s
local and regional offices, it built up strong ties with the party’s grassroots
who disapprove of the government’s composition. On April 9, in a move widely
interpreted as bullying, the faction unofficially called on thousands of its
supporters to travel to the capital and demonstrate against the governing crew
during a meeting at party headquarters. Trying to get Beji Caid Essebsi to
distance himself from the leftists-unionists and listen to the Hafedh group’s
demands, they held banners reading,
“Beji, come to our rescue; they wolfed us down.” These protesters, which
include Nidaa Tounes members from local branches, complained they sacrificed
everything for the party but have been elbowed out of power by the governing
crew.
While the internal
struggle for power continues between the conservatives, the leftist-unionists,
and Hafedh’s group, accusations are mounting. Hafedh, who holds a key
leadership position as director of the party’s “Central Administration for
Infrastructure and Mobilization,” has been accused of using his supporters to strengthen
his position ahead of the party’s national congress and internal elections
later this year. Raja Ben Slama, a former party member, complained
that “Mr. Hafedh Caid Essebsi, with all due respect to his father... deeply
harmed this party by creating parallel offices within it and excluding true
activists, and by allying with the monetary and media tycoons who mean to use
his influence and privilege to gain more power and profit.” Khmeis Ksila
responded with more incendiary comments attacking the Constitutional
Board—whose twelve members are split between leftists-unionists and veteran
conservatives—and leading figures of the presidential crew Lazhar Akremi, Ridha
Belhaj, and Mohsen Marzouk. In remarks on Nessma TV, Ksila accused them
of working to conduct “a real coup within the party against Hafedh Caid
Essebsi” and denounced the Constitutional Board’s “use of thought terrorism against
its opponents within Nidaa Tounes.”
The behavior of Hafedh
and his group is driven by the need to secure more influence for themselves and
their circle of supportive business lobbies, which are also seeking more privilege and power. The faction
also has a strong media backing since the leftist-unionist camp denied
membership to Nessma TV’s General Director, Nabil Karoui, despite his
station’s role in bringing
the party to power. Nessma TV
has favored hosting adherents of Hafedh’s group to speak up against the
leftist-unionist faction and veteran conservatives, and it regularly covers the
discontent of grassroots supporters loyal to Hafedh’s group.
In an attempt to
alleviate the pressure, the party elected a political office composed of the
three different factions on March 22, distributing decision-making among party
members and away from the Constitutional Board, which had controlled the party
for several months before Mohsen Marzouk was appointed secretary-general.
Nevertheless, as former party leader Abd Aziz Mzoughi noted, “the internal structure of Nidaa Tounes no longer favors
achieving effective dialogue between leaders anyway. There’s no focus on the
important issues... we hold meetings, during which it is not possible to have
deep and detailed conversations or make any decisions. The result, therefore,
is that decisions are made off the tip, without knowing who made them.”
While their severity
lessened somewhat over the past few months, more disputes are likely to emerge
by the end of the year, when Nidaa Tounes plans to hold its first internal
elections. Regardless of the result of these elections, Nidaa Tounes leaders
appear unable to advance institutional democracy over narrow clan-ridden
politicking. This would discredit Tunisia’s commitment to democratic norms and
further undermine the government’s ability to handle security and economic
challenges.
Omar Belhaj Salah is a
Berlin-based independent Tunisian researcher.