Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

Some Possible Explanations
The hesitation that Ennahdha has displayed in dealing with the salafis has contributed to
prolonged violence and tensions. This seems in contradiction to Ghannouchi’s recent
declarations and the text he published in January 2007, where he declared that the
“radical groups like the Salafist Jihadists constitute a major obstacle to the
democratisation of Tunisian society, which has never espoused a radical interpretation of
Islam throughout its history” (Allani 2009, 266).
In order to shed light on what might appear as a contradiction, the reasons several
factors need to take into account.
Firstly, Ennahdha is undergoing a crucial phase in its history. From a movement
banned from politics and constrained to act clandestinely, it has become the main
Tunisian party, representing 40% of the electorate. This dramatic change happened in less
than one year. The ideological discourse that Ghannouchi had elaborated in more than 30
years suddenly had to be adapted into a political program in order to propose solutions to
bread-and-butter issues, such as unemployment, economic crisis and violence on the
streets. After the toppling of Ben Ali’s regime, Ennahdha saw the chance to have its say
on Tunisian politics and took advantage of that. However this choice came at a cost:
Ennahdha had to grapple with the rules of the political arena and draft a program that
could be appealing to the largest possible number of electors, who, however were ready
to reward the party for its staunch opposition to the ancien regime. This transition marked
the transformation of the movement from a marginal actor in Tunisian politics to a mass
party.
In this change, Ennahdha is getting closer to what Otto Kircheimer called a
“catch-all party,” a party that sacrifices its ideological positions in order to maximize its
electoral appeal and mobilizes voters on policy preferences rather than on ideology
(Safran 2009, 543-554). Ghannouchi and other prominent Ennahdha members have
several times declared that the priorities in today’s Tunisia are the social and economic
issues, and not the theological questions. This approach to politics has shown how
Ennahdha is drifting toward a model of policy-oriented party, rather than an ideologydriven
one, an approach that is more likely to guarantee good performances at the polls.
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