Tensions between two factions of Nidaa Tunis (Call of Tunisia) are threatening to disrupt the Tunisian parliament’s work at a vulnerable time for the country. The escalating internal conflict spilled over Nov. 1, when a brawl erupted at a party meeting at a luxury hotel in the resort town of Hammamet. The sides are split between supporters of Hafedh Essebsi, son of Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi, and Mohsen Marzouk, a former leftist activist and the party’s secretary-general. After the meeting, the party’s executive bureau accused the young Essebsi and some of the party leadership, including Cabinet director Ridha Belhaj, of inciting violence to “take over the party” and restructure it.
“Today Nidaa Tunis died. The party no longer exists as we know it,” wrote Mamoghli Chokri, a member of the party's executive board, on Facebook after the fight. “There will be a split. The parliamentary group will be divided into two, and the government will likely fall. Ennahda [the rival, Islamist party], by default, will become the [top] party in the country.”
