Gov coalition with Tunisian Islamists a mistake: Essebsi

CAIRO - 6 September 2017: Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi expressed in an interview published on Wednesday regrets over alliance with the Islamist Ennahda Movement in ruling the country, describing it as a “mistake”.

In an interview published in the Tunisian newspaper Essahafa, Essebsi stressed that the alliance was dictated by the results of the elections which did not enable his political party, Nidaa Tounes, to win the majority. A majority would have enabled them to form a government on their own without the need for the Ennahda (Renaissance) Movement.

The political party Niddaa Tounes won the 2014 elections and had the biggest number of votes among other parties; however, it did not win the majority and could not rule alone, forcing them enter into a coalition with the second largest party, the Ennahda Movement.

Essebsi noted that the “parties that were classified then as "civil" did not have the political awareness fit enough for the that phase,” pointing out that they had to deal with the “delicate situation,” and found in entering a government coalition a solution to the problems at hand or at least one that wouldn’t make things more complex.

Essebsi said that Ennahda Movement accepted the coalition but not on “its own terms,” noting that they had hoped that by doing that, they would contribute to bringing it into the "civil" field, but “we seem to have misjudged in our assessment.”

Essebsi’s statements come as Prime Minister Youssef Chahed announced on Wednesday an expanded cabinet reshuffle, trying to maintain the current alliance between Nidaa Tounes and Ennahda, alongside a number of smaller parties in the national unity government.