EXCLUSIVE: Rachid Ghannouchi to throw in the towel on the crisis in Tunisia
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Alaina
- . August 20, 2021
- . Update: August 20, 2021 4:41 pm
Rachid Ghannouchi may have understood that it is over and is ready to throw in the towel on the Tunisia political crisis. For months now, the Islamist party leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, has faced a growing protest movement, including within the Ennahdha movement. Many have long disputed his intention to remain, President of the party, despite the prohibition in internal regulations that limit the presidency to two consecutive sessions.
His attempt, some time ago, to force the decision and obtain an amendment to the article that dictates this limitation has unleashed a natural wind of revolt among the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood. Subsequently, true to his tradition of letting his enemies wear themselves out, Ghannouchi went to great lengths to postpone the party congress, waiting to regain consensus among his critics.
But after his misadventures in the ARP presidency, and after the setback he received from the Republic President on July 25, and despite his multiple attempts to withdraw, it seems that Ghannouchi has finally understood that there is nothing more to do. The Muslim Brotherhood holds him responsible for everything that happened to their party and that they are, once again, forced to step aside in the face of widespread anger.
“After what happened on the glorious Republic Day, after the people closest to you called you before the Shura Council, your criminal calls to undermine our international relations and interests while we Tunisians were at the war’s height against the pandemic, is it not time that you quietly resign? And give way to a leading figure who has the interests of the country and the citizen at heart and does not seek his interests?”
The Tunisian journalist Rashid al-Karai writes, asking: “Isn’t it time for you to know, President of the frozen Parliament, that you entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most hated person in Tunisia and the Arab world?”.
Al-Karai goes on to address Ghannouchi: “The time has come for you to know that you are the political figure who has exploited his influence the most and has not kept the promises made since the beginning of your political career. The time has come for you to know, President of the Parliament of Humiliation, that you are the political figure who has impoverished the Tunisian people the most. You have taken control of the caricatures and social network pages that make our people laugh and cry”.
Realizing that his time is up, Ghannouchi would have recently declared to his entourage that he would not ask for a change in the party’s rules of procedure and that, consequently, he would not be running for a new term President of Ennahdha. But beware, this decision and this withdrawal could be an attempt to give the Muslim Brotherhood another chance, pretending to step aside and allow others to make Tunisians believe that the time of Ghannouchi is over and that Ennahdha has changed and corrected his mistakes.
