Members of Tunisia's Ennahda resign, say movement no longer represents them
Tunisia’s Ennahda party is witnessing unprecedented internal differences between its young members and its senior members, which some pundits describe as the beginning of the movement’s end.
TUNIS, Tunisia — Hager Barcous, a local official for the Ennahda movement in Nice, France, announced Jan. 15 that she would withdraw her membership from the movement. She argued that Ennahda’s decisions, discourses and activities no longer represent her. She also demanded serious internal structural reforms before she resumed her partisan activity with Ennahda.
Earlier, on Jan. 14, another Ennahda member, Ziad Boumakhla, resigned from the party in a post on his Facebook account, without stating the reasons. Boumakhla had been active with Ennahda for over 10 years.
On the same day, active Ennahda leader Hisham Laarayedh, who is also the son of the movement’s deputy head and former Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh, followed suit. He announced that he is quitting in a Facebook post. He had been an active member of Ennahda for a decade. He, also, did not reveal in his post the reasons for his resignation.
These resignations are not new for Ennahda. Zubair al-Shahoudi, who served as office director of Rachid Ghannouchi, the head of Ennahda, had resigned on Sept. 17, 2019. He urged Ghannouchi to retire from political work.
