Promoting peaceful coexistence between political actors with divergent worldviewsTunis, 23 September 2017Author: Salahedine Jourchi
Translated from Arabic by: Khadidja Neggazi
Edited by: Charlotte Mounier
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Introduction
On 23 September 2017, the Al-Jahedh Forum and the Cordoba Foundation of Geneva (CFG), in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), organised a workshop – the third of its kind held in Tunis – as part of the programme “Promoting peaceful coexistence between Tunisian political actors with different ideological references”. Two earlier meetings had been held: the first devoted to dialogue between Islamists and secularists in the Tunisian context, the second to the 18 October and Troika experiences. This workshop set out to evaluate the alliance between the Nidaa Tounes party and the Ennahdha movement, an experience that has lasted from 2014, the date of the last legislative elections, to this day.
The workshop aimed to evaluate the Ennahdha–Nidaa Tounes coalition since 2014 as an example of consensus designed to promote joint action between actors from different ideological camps in order to protect Tunisia’s democratic transition. This is linked to the programme’s main objective: to facilitate a dialogue process creating a safe environment that could eventually make it possible to reach consensus and solutions based on a good relationship between Islamists and secularists, so that they combine their capacities to guarantee stability as well as coexistence for a successful democratic transition in Tunisia. This objective can be achieved by examining the practical aspects of the joint initiatives launched by the two parties. Most important is whether the idea of a circumstantial rapprochement is becoming an important part of the process of building national unity, which requires giving priority to the political over the ideological and placing the higher interest of the nation above narrow partisan interests. The workshop was attended by representatives of the two parties, officials from the parties Machrouu Tounes, Al-Hirak, the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties, Al-Binaa and the Islamic Front, a number of independent figures and academic researchers, and young people from Ennahdha and Nidaa Tounes – 26 participants in all, men and women.
The workshop opened with remarks by the president of the Al-Jahedh Forum, the CFG representative and the FDFA representative, who recalled Switzerland’s commitment to cooperation and political transition. After the opening session, the workshop began its work with two presentations by representatives of Nidaa Tounes, in a session entitled “The Ennahdha–Nidaa alliance: an imperative dictated by the election results or a strategic choice?”.
In his introduction, the session moderator explained that the alliance between the two parties had not been anticipated in post-revolution forecasts, especially after Nidaa Tounes was founded. The alliance therefore came as a surprise and was described by many as “against nature”, owing to the deep disagreements between the Destourians under President Bourguiba, and later between supporters of the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) and the Islamists under President Ben Ali – disagreements that led to forty years of repression of Ennahdha’s supporters. Moreover, the political rivalry between Ennahdha and Nidaa Tounes had reached a peak.
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