“Arrest of Rached Ghannouchi in Tunisia Causes High Levels of Reactions”

The reactions following the arrest of Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the Islamist party Ennahdha, are conflicting in Tunisia.

Of course, his party condemns the move, but among the population, one can sense a certain amount of relief among some. Ennahdha’s strongman was fueling the resentment of a certain segment of the Tunisian population, twelve years after the revolution.

Where is Rached Ghannouchi? That’s the question Ennahdha was still posing on Tuesday evening. According to the party, neither his family nor his lawyers have been able to access the Islamist party leader. Aged 81 and physically weakened, he would have been hospitalized according to Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, the head of the National Salvation Front opposed to President Kaïs Saïed, of which Ennahdha is part.

As arrests of opposition members have multiplied in Tunisia since February, that of Rached Ghannouchi—enemy number one of the master of Carthage—was expected but is currently subject to debate in the country. Arrested on Monday evening during the breaking of the fast, and in the middle of the Night of Destiny, the holiest night of the month of Ramadan, his party describes the arrest as an “enforced disappearance.” Opposition political circles, on the other hand, are concerned about methods reminiscent of those of the former regime of Ben Ali.

But among the Tunisian population, some did not hide their relief at seeing this political leader apprehended. Cited in terrorism cases, among other things, the Ennahdha leader concentrates the anger of a significant segment of the Tunisian population who see in the Islamist party a nepotistic and opaque movement that put partisan interests before those of the country after the revolution.