Former Prime Minister Beji Caid Sebsi (who served from February to December 2011) and his secularist opposition party, Call for Tunisia, are forces with which Ennahda is now reckoning.
Fellow party members like leftist Mohsen Marzouki said the Call of Tunisia Party is the safety factor that will protect Tunisia as a democratic and secular state against the backward and antidemocratic forces.
Former Prime Minister Beji Caid Sebsi (who served from February to December 2011) and his secularist opposition party, Call for Tunisia, are forces with which Ennahda is now reckoning.
Fellow party members like leftist Mohsen Marzouki said the Call of Tunisia Party is the safety factor that will protect Tunisia as a democratic and secular state against the backward and antidemocratic forces.
Another member, Khamis Qussila, is a secularist who defected from the Progressive Socialist Grouping (PSG) and joined the Call of Tunisia Party; he was able to find a parliamentary bloc of parties’ defected members inside the Constituent Assembly, such as the Assembly’s star Ibrahim al-Qassas.
Qussila denied that the Call of Tunisia Party is a shelter for former PSG members and a safe haven for slaughters of the Tunisian people. He also fiercely rejected the exclusion bill— Ennahda-backed legislation which would prevent Ben Ali-era remnants from participating in politics for ten years. Qussila stressed that “the Judiciary is the only authority entitled to exclude any party based on criminal action not intentions.”
In addition to al-Marzouki and Qussila, the Call of Tunisia Party includes various well-known figures from the world of politics and culture that have different intellectual and ideological backgrounds. The one thing in common, however, is that they all have one goal, which is to rise to power, regardless of the cost, which prompted political columnist Safi Saeed to describe the Call of Tunisia Party as “a pack of wolves led by an old lion.”
On the other hand, Call of Tunisia Party also includes many businessmen accused of corruption under Ben Ali. Leading the list is Kamal Latif who is believed to be the main puppet master behind the curtain. We can also find Fawzi al-Loumi, the prominent businessman who stirred up a controversy, which almost blew the Call of Tunisia Party from the inside when he confessed that the party is the Grouping’s substitute; a charge that has always been denied by members of the party who are proud of being constitutionalists and not “ralliers.” However, the worldly experience of Beji Kaed Sebsi allowed him to quickly contain the newly born conflict inside his party.
Entrance by coup
Exactly as the revolution overthrew Ben Ali, the second sit-in in Kasbah succeeded in forcing Mohammed Ganouchi, Ben Ali’s prime minister and the fickle post-revolution minister to resign, paving the way for his successor Beji Caid Sebsi.
Beji Caid Sebsi returned to the country’s political arena uninvited after being an active political figure under Bourguiba with a number of ministerial portfolios. He tried, after the November 7 coup, to be involved in political life, but Ben Ali was not pleased with Sebsi’s personality, which was deeply influenced by Bourguiba’s totalitarian knowledge and dominant father-like figure.
Political Career
Ever since his first interview, Sebsi emerged as a skillful politician in his 80’s whose poise and wit seemed inconsistent with his old age, which sometimes reached the level of rudeness especially when dealing with media representatives.
His rhetorical skills and eloquence made him a powerful and an interesting speaker as he could turn any speech about politics, lack of security or the stumbling economy during his days as prime minister into his own one-man show. His opponents believe that his ability to walk on the wire of politics safely is his best trait.
Sebsi’s rhetorical skill is evident through his colorful sentences, which often include Koranic references, lines of poetry and style enhancers, and even folk proverbs that appeal to the Tunisian public.
When provoked by a situation, Sebsi rakes opponents over the coals by using rude and demeaning phrases. Perhaps the most dangerous word Sebsi used to describe police officers after his appointment as prime minister was “monkeys,” which, despite being outrageously insulting, was received with enthusiastic cheers and applause by the crowd!
Man to watch
Before the Constituent Assembly elections, Beji Caid Sebsi was the star of the political arena as he led the country to its first free and fair elections in its history, which resulted in Islamists scoring the biggest gains.
Before the elections, Sebsi used to commend the Islamists and defend their right to lead the country, but after the elections, the two became visibly hostile toward each other. The reason behind this shift in attitude was, according to various political sources, a deal which went bad between Beji Caid Sebsi’s and the Ennahda Party. The deal was to give Sebsi “a piece of the cake” if Ennahda Party won the elections, but the balance of power on the electoral horizon turned the table upside down and cancelled all previous agreements.
Temporary marriage dissolved
A video leaked on the day the Jibali-led troika government superseded the Sebsi government showed the chemistry between the two opponents, but Beji Caid Sebsi’s temperament changed quickly and he became an outspoken critic of the Ennahda Party and its failure to run the country.
Sebsi was very clear in his criticism when he said, ” The Ennahda Party proved its failure to run the country. They only want authority and the nation cannot be run like that.”
A few months after the October elections, Sebsi announced the birth of Nidaa Tounes, or “Call of Tunisia,” party in reaction to Ennahda Party’s cancelation of their agreement with him. The new party raised “Bourguiba’s philosophy” as its slogan to attract all left and right political streams and to exploit the special place of Bourguiba in the collective memory of Tunisians.
Perhaps the most powerful yet invisible component in the new party is the members of the dissolved Progressive Socialist Grouping which has been strenuously seeking to find its way back into the country’s public life and be a political player again.
Power against Ennahda
Since it wants to be regarded as an Anti-Ennahda force, given that public opinion polls favored it, the Call of Tunisia Party supervised by its mastermind Beji Caid Sebsi sought to attract political parties of magnitude and with a long history in Tunisia, such as the Republican Party and the Masar Party to form a front and a powerful lobby against Ennahda Party and its allies.
However, the Call of Tunisia Party seems to be walking in a minefield since its opponents have been busy searching in hidden black files, including the Yusef group case in which Sebsi is the prime suspect. But as always, Sebsi denied the accusations about torturing members of the Yusef group calling these accusations mere lies and fabrications.
Some believe that the newly established Call of Tunisia Party, which relies on the charismatic influence of its leader Beji Caid Sebsi, may go through difficult times in the future and may be torn apart by internal differences before its supporters manage to reach their only goal: power.
