Successive blows to Ghannouchi wing in Ennahda movement

Hossam al-Haddad

Amid the rising voices of the internal opposition against him, the head of the Tunisian Ennahda movement, Rached Ghannouchi, received a heavy blow after the failure of most of those close to him in the elections for the movement’s executive office, and the rise of leaders and elements of the opposition wing.

On Saturday, January 2, 2021, the Ennahda movement announced the new formation of its 17-member executive office following the 47th session of the Shura Council.

The results resulted in the fall of many leaders close to Ghannouchi, led by his brother-in-law, former Foreign Minister Rafiq Abdel Salam, former Minister of Transport Anwar Maarouf, former Shura Council Speaker Fathi al-Ayadi, and former Minister of Economy Ridha al-Saidi, along with Rida Idris and Muhammad al-Qoumani.

On the other hand, leaders belonging to the anti-Ghannouchi wing, which is called the “Group of 100”, ascended to the new executive office, most notably former Minister of Health Abdel-Latif Al-Makki, who is considered the leader of the internal opposition in the Ennahda movement, and Reda Al-Barouni, one of those accused by the Defense Committee of Shukri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi of belonging to the movement’s secret apparatus.

Fractured ranks in Tunisian Brotherhood

On another level of the strikes against Ghannouchi, informed sources told Al-Ain Al-Akhbariya that some leaders affiliated with the Ennahda movement signed a petition calling on Ghannouchi to reveal the sources of his vast wealth.

They explained that the submitted petition calls for the removal of Ghannouchi’s son-in-law, Rafiq Abdel Salam, from party responsibilities and all political plans in the movement.

This is not the first in which Ghannouchi’s son-in-law is the headline of financial corruption, as he was described in an old message, released by Brotherhood leader Zubair al-Shahoudi, as being corrupt.

According to the sources, Ghannouchi’s wealth intersects with the funds of the international organization of the Brotherhood and is fed by smuggling and money laundering networks in the region.

These sources close to the Ennahda movement indicated that the Tunisian Parliament Speaker’s share of the Brotherhood’s proceeds may reach more than $1 billion.

Ghannouchi leads an empire of economic and media companies from behind the scenes, assisted by Abdel Salam and his son Moaz, according to the sources.

The manifestations of the enormous wealth prompted his companions to resign and include them in texts denouncing the shadow empire led by the Ghannouchi family.

Resignations continue to bleed

Meanwhile, a leader in the movement and a member of the policies committee within the Shura Council, Al-Arabi Al-Qasimi, resigned after the council meeting.

Qasimi said in his resignation, “The promises of reform after the tenth conference went unheeded, but rather disasters settled in their place, which made the situation more rotten, the climate tense, and relations corrupted.”

Qasimi accused the movement’s leadership of having brought about “people who had nothing to do with the movement, but rather were competitors and opponents, and empowered them in higher decision-making positions and became influential and decision-makers at the expense of the movement’s militants who built it with their suffering and sacrifices.”

“The movement has corrupted opportunistic interest lobbies that penetrated the decision-making sites, deviating from its goals, imposing guardianship over its mechanisms and using it to serve other than the nation. It has offered and preferred the lesser over the good and the opportunist over the fighter until I no longer have the capacity to bear this injustice and ambiguity, and I have to stop this bleeding. I value what I can or express any responsibility for,” he added.

For nearly a year, the Ennahda movement has witnessed many resignations among its leaders from the current opposing Ghannouchi. Last March, Abd al-Hamid al-Jalasi, one of the movement’s most prominent leaders since the 1980s, resigned in protest against Ghannouchi’s domination of the movement.

In November, Secretary General Ziad al-Athari resigned “in rejection of the party’s options in forming the government.” Hisham al-Areedh, the son of party leader and former Prime Minister Ali al-Areedh, and Ziad Boumakhla, two of the most prominent youth leaders, also announced their resignation on January 14.

Prior to that, the director of Ghannouchi’s office, Zubair al-Shahudi, had announced in September 2019 his resignation from the movement, calling on its head to “retire from politics and remove his son-in-law Rafiq Abdel Salam and all leaders who violated the will of the major voters, in a direct exclusion of all those who disagree with women, youth and historic leaders.”

A report by the French magazine Le Point described the way Ghannouchi runs the Ennahda movement as a “narrow circle”, indicating that Ghannouchi had tightened his grip on the organization through a group that included his son Moaz, and his son-in-law Abdel Salam.

The report said that Ghannouchi’s management of his movement “is in constant decline,” referring to the resignation of his political advisor and director of his office for many years, Lotfi Zaitoun, in July 2019 in protest against the way the movement was managed. Observers believe that Ghannouchi’s wealth came at the expense of millions of Tunisians who are suffering from unemployment, poverty and helplessness in the face of the economic crises caused by the successive Brotherhood governments.

In his comment on the new resignation, Obaid Al-Khulaifi believes that it is “a continuation of the bleeding of previous resignations, and there will be no new in the level of results except for a further deepening of the disagreement and the formation of two currents within the movement fighting for the helm of leadership that cannot bear many names.”

He pointed out that “the Group of 100, the locomotive of the opposition within the movement, also appears to be heterogeneous in its ambitions despite the minimum document that they agreed upon. The hour when the leadership alternative is proposed, this group will disappear, because the two parties to the conflict within Ennahda have the same ideas and perceptions, and only leadership and power struggles separate them.”

Accountability

MP Munji al-Rahwi confirmed in statements to Al-Ain Al-Akhbar that there is no way for the leaders of Ennahda to escape accountability and reveal their secret files.

He explained that Tunisia lost the battle of progress and democratic transition in light of the presence of a party that believes in violence and incitement to murder and encourages takfir in the parliament.

The slogan of the necessity of accountability is also raised by the head of the Free Constitutional Party, Abeer Moussa, who with her supporters is fighting sit-ins in the various provinces in which the Qaradawi Union is present.

Also, the leader of the Democratic Current Party, Samia Abbou, demanded in media statements the necessity of disclosing Ghannouchi’s financial files, accusing him and his ally Saif Makhlouf of money laundering.

Internal Ennahda movement

For more than a year, Ennahda has been witnessing an internal movement opposing Ghannouchi, fearing that he might run again for the party’s leadership.

Article 31 of the revised Basic Law of Ennahda, relating to the conditions for electing a party leader, stipulates that no member has the right to hold the party leadership for more than two consecutive terms, and that the party leader, upon his election, is devoted to his duties as the head of the movement. However, Ghannouchi combined the leadership of the movement with the presidency of the parliament.

For his part, Obaid al-Khulaifi, a researcher and academic who specializes in political Islamist movements, believes that the battle for the executive office “will not stand in front of Ghannouchi’s unlimited ambitions to remain as the head of the movement. Even if it is true that he lost a round after the fall of the close circle, he still has maneuver cards.”

Khulaifi added in an interview with Sky News Arabia, “Ghannouchi still maintains his control over the movement organizationally and logistically, and his anger is still able to subdue many of the central structures supported by the pragmatism of the narrow leadership circle. This confirms that this man in his movement was never democratic.”

“The battle is for the composition of the executive office, which will ensure the preparation of the next conference of the movement, and the next conference is an important chapter in the disintegration of the movement or the eradication of sedition by formal compromises that give political gifts to the heads of personal aspirations, and by the personal satisfactions of a leader of a political movement who does not imagine himself outside the equation of the presidency in Carthage or Monplaisir (the organizational headquarters of the movement),” he added.