ached Ghannouchi, 81, made headlines in April 2023 when he was arrested and imprisoned before trial for allegedly inciting people against state authorities. The arrest followed a turbulent week that began with a police raid to Ghannouchi’s home during Ramazan.

The arrest was made under a warrant from counter-terrorism prosecutors investigating recent ‘provocative’ comments. His party, Ennahza, and its supporters claimed that the charges were politically motivated and part of a wider campaign in which other party officials, including a former prime minister, were also detained.

Ghannouchi has attained salience in Tunisian politics for his unwavering commitment to upholding the legacy of Tunisia’s revolution and the broader pro-democratic movement in the Arab world. Nevertheless, his ascendancy has not been impervious to the vicissitudes of political fortune. The contours of his influence have evolved in a complex tapestry of challenges and dynamics.

Ghannouchi’s criticism of President Kais Saied is a testament to his enduring dedication to the democratic ideals that catalysed Tunisia’s revolution. His articulation of the imperative to safeguard the gains of the Arab Spring resonates as a clarion. His commitment extends beyond partisan boundaries, transcending the confines of Ennahza.

In an expanding crackdown on political opponents, Tunisian police have also raided and closed Ennahza’s headquarters. President Kais Saied, who had dismissed the government in 2021, has dissolved the parliament and ruled by decree, leading to accusations of orchestrating a ‘coup’.

Ennahza, a self-described Muslim democrat party rooted in political Islam, has been a major force in Tunisian politics since the 2011 revolution that marked the Arab Spring and the removal of long-time President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Ghannouchi comes from a village in the Gabes province. He was born in 1941 during the French colonial rule that lasted until 1956. He pursued theology, graduating in 1962 from Ez-Zitouna University, known for its contributions to Islamic education. He began agricultural studies at Cairo University in 1964. Next, he studied philosophy, joining the University of Damascus in 1968 and Sorbonne University in Paris in 1969.

In the early 1970s, Ghannouchi and some like-minded young intellectuals grew disillusioned with Tunisia’s secularism led by the authoritarian leader, Habib Bourguiba and formed a new movement rooted in Islamic values, aiming to promote multiparty democracy and integrate Islamic principles into public life. In 1981, the movement was officially named Ennahza.

Diverse intellectual influences shaped Ghannouchi’s unique perspective. He was inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Tunisian thinkers, and philosopher Malik Bennabi, who envisioned a civilisation transcending sectarian boundaries.

Andrew March, an expert in political philosophy and Islamic jurisprudence, notes that Ghannouchi’s ideas defy easy categorisation. Bennabi’s work not only influenced Ghannouchi’s views on Islam in the public sphere but also promoted a nuanced approach to Islamic jurisprudence. These ideas laid the foundation for Ghannouchi’s distinctive synthesis.

In his notable work, Public Freedom, Ghannouchi emphasises the confluence of Islam and democracy. He advocates for popular sovereignty, asserting that people should have unquestionable authority over all institutions, including religious ones. This perspective underscores his strong commitment to democratic ideals.

Born during a time of change and upheaval in Tunisia, Ghannouchi faced imprisonment in the 1980s but his determination grew stronger. In 1993, he sought refuge in London, where he lived for two decades, reflecting on Tunisia’s struggles and future.

The turning point came in January 2011 when he returned to Tunisia after President Ben Ali’s ousting. His return was celebrated and marked a new era of optimism and hope for democracy. After the revolution, in October 2011, Ghannouchi’s Ennahza party won a significant victory in Tunisia’s first post-Ben Ali parliamentary elections, securing 37 percent of the vote and solidifying their influence in the country.

Ghannouchi led the party but didn’t hold a government office. Hamadi Jebali was elected prime minister. Ennahza had a crucial role in drafting Tunisia’s 2014 constitution and worked with secular parties in government coalitions.

In 2019, Ghannouchi became speaker of the parliament speaker but this development has been overshadowed by other events since 2021. President Kais Saied has dismantled democratic institutions, including the parliament, citing the need for a strong presidency.

This move has drawn both strong support and opposition. There have been reports of a growing crackdown on dissent. Many in the political opposition, activists, lawyers and media figures face punitive measures. Saied’s characterisation of them as ‘terrorists’ has sparked international condemnation.

Ghannouchi’s popularity has witnessed a gradual ebbing. The electorate’s patience has been sorely tested by a protracted economic crisis. In the lead-up to the watershed 2019 elections that ushered Saied into power, Tunisia struggled against a dire economic panorama characterised by rampant inflation and a disheartening unemployment rate.

The populist allure of President Saied has managed to seize the zeitgeist, despite a conspicuous lack of tangible improvements to the nation’s economic plight. The confluence of factors that have facilitated Saied’s ascendancy speaks to the electorate’s yearning for transformative change, even in the absence of a substantive policy framework.

Critics have contended that Ghannouchi, in his stewardship of Ennahza, erred by perpetuating a leadership paradigm characterised by an absence of generational diversity. Rather than cultivating a vibrant tapestry of voices, Ghannouchi is accused of surrounding himself with a retinue of venerable consultants.

The consequences of this approach have been a gradual ossification of Ennahza’s upper echelons, rendering them unresponsive to internal democratic discourse and impervious to legitimate criticism from the electorate.

While Ghannouchi espoused a vision of Tunisia’s political landscape as a bastion of democracy, he paradoxically perpetuated his own hegemonic sway within Ennahza, a stance that elicited reproach from those who advocated for a more fluid transition of leadership. The palpable tension between his commitment to democratic principles and his own retention of a preeminent role in the party has not gone unnoticed.

Ghannouchi has also been criticised within Ennahza due to the strategic choices made after the 2019 elections. Critics argue that he was too cautious in confronting President Saied’s decisions and failed to mobilise a robust counter-narrative. This reticence culminated in the resignation of more than 100 senior members from Ennahza in 2021.

Mohamed Fadel, an academic at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, observes: “Ghannouchi’s complacency in presuming the inherent inevitability of democracy, coupled with an underestimation of anti-democratic interest groups, left him vulnerable to criticism. This interplay of factors has cast a pall over his political legacy, serving as a poignant reminder of the intricacies and challenges inherent to the democratic experiment in Tunisia.”

The writer is Professor in the faculty of Liberal Arts at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore