A group loyal to Hafedh Caid Essebsi, son of Tunisia’s current president, has clashed with supporters of Mohsen Marzouk, who quit his post as the Secretary-General of Nidaa Tounes Party, sparking a wave of resignations and splitting the party into two factions.

From Janurary 9-10, Essebsi’s group held a meeting in the city of Sousse to appoint new leadership. Meanwhile Marzouk’s group, along with a number of resigned deputies, held a rival meeting at the Conference Palace in Tunis.

A group loyal to Hafedh Caid Essebsi, son of Tunisia’s current president, has clashed with supporters of Mohsen Marzouk, who quit his post as the Secretary-General of Nidaa Tounes Party, sparking a wave of resignations and splitting the party into two factions.

From Janurary 9-10, Essebsi’s group held a meeting in the city of Sousse to appoint new leadership. Meanwhile Marzouk’s group, along with a number of resigned deputies, held a rival meeting at the Conference Palace in Tunis.

Analysts had long predicted that the Nidaa Tounes Party was doomed to be split because it was founded by politicians from different backgrounds, including those from the left, trade unions and the Democratic Constitutional Party. The party was united in 2012 to face off the Islamist Ennahda Movement, but their unity has rapidly disintegrated.

News that Marzouk and over 20 deputies had resigned was supported by thousands of party members who were dissatisfied at what they dubbed as the convergence with Ennahda.

New party?

Marzouk’s group’s meeting was in the media spotlight, not least because Marzouk had outlined his intention to found a new party.

Mondher Bel Hadj Ali, one of the resigned deputies, said the creation of a new party would be unveiled on March 2. That date had been earmarked as it marks the breakaway declaration of Tunisian leader Habib Bourguiba, along with a number of leaders, from the Tunisian Constitutional Liberal Party in 1934. That declaration marked a key point in Bourguiba’s political career.

Marzouk and his fellow dissidents have always described themselves as Bourguiba’s children and stressed in their speeches that they are embracing Bourguiba’s approach to politics and economic and social reforms.

Ali said they resigned for several reasons, including a lack of democracy within Nidaa Tounes and Essebsi’s attempt to hijack the party and divert it from its basic goals.

He criticised the consensus conference held by Nidaa Tounes in Sousse, held under the slogan of “Loyalty”, branding it as a theatrical move aimed to pass leadership on to the son of President Beji Caid Essebsi, the party founder who attended the meeting along with Ennahda Movement’s leader Rached Ghannouchi.

According to observers, the changes reflect Hafedh Caid Essebsi’s control over the most important position in the party, where he serves as executive director and the legal representative. Other positions were distributed to his allies, such as Tourism Minister Selma Elloumi Rekik.

Through his new post, Essebsi holds the reins of the daily running of Nidaa Tounes.

The conflict within Nidaa Tounes boils down to a spat about the party’s first caucus. Marzouk’s group called for an electoral conference, while Essebsi’s group called for a consensual non-electoral conference.

The conflict expanded to include the 86-member parliamentary bloc of Nidaa Tounes, where 32 deputies suspended their membership in the bloc, which increased the political temperature and pushed President Beji Caid Essebsi to form a 13-member committee to reconcile the differences between the two splinter groups. However, from Marzouk and his allies’ points of view, these efforts only aimed at signaling support for Essebsi and his son.

As a result, 20 out of the 32 deputies resigned and joined Marzouk to establish a new political party that favours a strain of neo-Bourguibism.

However, Nidaa Tounes’ crisis is far from over. Given the structure of the party and the presence of Ghannouchi at the party’s conference, recent events are unlikely to pass peacefully. Instead, further resignations and breakaways are likely, not least because of reports that many deputies left the conference to vent their anger at the short-lived relation between Essebsi and Ghannouchi.