Ennahda says it may leave power in Tunisia

Tunisia’s ruling Ennahda party says it it could leave power, throwing Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali a lifeline in his
quest to form a government of technocrats and steer the country out of crisis.

“Ennahda could quit power if Jebali maintains his proposal. Everything is possible. It is not inevitable for Ennahda to stay in the government,” Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem said on Wednesday.

“Dialogue continues. The doors are not closed,” Abdessalem, a son-in-law of Ennahda party chief Rached Ghannouchi, said on the pan-Arab news channel Al-Arabiya.

Abdessalem’s remarks were the first by a key Ennahda official suggesting that the Islamist party, which controls 89 of the 217 seats in the National Constituent Assembly after an October 2011 election, could back down.

However, Ennahda also called on its supporters to rally on Saturday to back its “legitimacy.”

“Supporters of Ennahda must defend their revolution and the interests of the people,” Mohamed Akrout, an Ennahda deputy chief, said on in a video posted on the party’s Facebook page.

‘Critical situation’

The rally was aimed at “bolstering the legitimacy and realise the goals of the revolution,” he said in the video.

Jebali has been seeking political support for his plan to form a non-partisan cabinet of technocrats, after the assassination last week of a leftist opposition figure threw Tunisia into turmoil.

But Jebali has been facing stiff resistance from Ennahda, which has been blamed for the cold-blooded murder of Chokri Belaid who was a staunch critic of the government.

Jebali was warned of chaos and threatened to quit if he is unable to go form a new government by the middle of the week.
Assembly speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar earlier said that he would “strongly support” Jebali, adding that the country was in a “critical situation”  following Belaid’s murder.

Ben Jaafar, the leader of the secular Ettakatol, an ally of Ennahda, said he was ready to hand over all ministerial positions controlled by his party, including finance, tourism and education.

“It’s make or break, but we don’t want to break it,” he said, adding he hoped Ennahda would put “national interests above partisan interests”.

Ghannouchi had also opened the door for a possible compromise on the future government.

“The government that can save the situation in the country… is a government of national coalition,” he said, insisting however that it must “represent all the political forces”.

Jebali, meanwhile, has been holding consultations with politicians and legal experts.

Enflamed tensions

Both the powerful General Union of Tunisian Workers and the union of employers UTICA have expressed support for Jebali’s initiative, seeing in it a way to emerge from the crisis.

Ennahda hardliners refuse to give up key portfolios and have warned they will take to the streets of the capital, as they did on Saturday, to insist on the party’s right to govern following its October 2011 election triumph.

The February 6 killing of Belaid has enflamed tensions between liberals and Islamists over the direction of the once proudly secular Muslim nation, with opposition protesters engaging in street clashes with police.

Tunisia is also witnessing a deadlock over the drafting of the constitution, 15 months after the election of the assembly, and the country has been further destabilised by the rise of Salafists, accused of deadly attacks.

Poverty and unemployment, two key factors that led to the revolution, continue to grip the country.