A new maneuver by the Ennahdha Movement

11th December 2021

2 minutes read

A new maneuver for Ennahdha Brotherhood movement, an attempt to return to the forefront, by excluding some of its leaders involved in many cases of corruption and foreign funding, which President Kais Saied and political and popular forces called for the judiciary to open, headed by Rached Ghannouchi.

Tunisian political analyst Belahssen Yahyaoui said in a statement: “Ghannouchi has presented a mediation to the Presidency of the Republic in recent days, to discuss the possibility of leaving the country to go to any other country, in exchange for ending prosecution for political corruption and financing”.

“The escalation on the part of Ennahdha leaders during the past period is nothing more than pressure on state institutions and President Kais Saied to allow Ghannouchi and some of the leaders to leave the country”, Yahyaoui said.

“The Brotherhood of Tunisia is absolutely certain that there is no going back to the frozen parliament and no going back in the public scene, but they continue to push for a safe exit”, he said.

Yahyaoui added that Ghannouchi’s safe exit from Tunisia is an attempt to save what was left of the Ennahdha movement; because Ghannouchi will allow other leaders to blame him for the mistakes and thus, to reposition it selves on the Tunisian scene, citing the procedure as “an attempt to obtain a patent for the movement, to the detriment of Ghannouchi who will be outside the country”.

“Ghannouchi asked to leave the country for one of the Arab countries allied with them, in order to maintain the movement inside the country and also to escape the trials that follow him on charges of corruption and terrorism”, Yahyaoui said.

In recent days, the scandalous actions of Ennahdha’s leaders have multiplied, threatening to attack Parliament; this provoked the anger of citizens who protested against Ghannouchi’s invitations.

In another context, Ghannouchi has been the target of a wave of comments and criticisms by hundreds of Tunisians on the media in the last few hours, following a fire that broke out yesterday at the party headquarters in Tunis because of a person’s self-immolation.

One described the Ennahdha leader’s comments as lies and sleeplessness. Others said: “This is a Tunisian citizen who burned his soul in your seat, often because of your illusory promises”.

The criticism came after the leader of Ennahdha announced last night that the man who set his body on fire was “another martyr in the struggle to free Tunisia from injustice, dictatorship, corruption and marginalization, as well as another victim of poverty”.

He noted that “Sami Ghazi, who spent more than 10 years in prison fighting against authoritarianism but received no compensation”, he said, is “an unjust victim of the media war against Ennahdha and its members”.

Preliminary data showed that Sami, was recently fired from his job inside the Movement’s headquarters and asked to meet Ghannouchi, before being prevented from doing so, he poured gasoline and burned himself, causing a fire in the headquarters.