An Nahda has been operating underground for years, and its leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, has been living in exile in Europe since the early 1990s. As a result, many younger Tunisians know nothing about the party. Ghannouchi has said he will soon leave England to return to Tunisia. That has invited comparisons to Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was living in exile in France when the Islamic revolution kicked off in his home country in 1979. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Ghannouchi downplayed the comparison. “Some are presenting me as a Khomeini who will return to Tunisia,” he said. “I am no Khomeini.”
Regardless, supporters of An Nahda are making themselves heard on the streets of Tunis. On Tuesday morning a handful of young men claiming to support An Nahda showed up outside the offices of the Progressive Democratic Party, the country’s largest legal opposition group, shouting, “Resign! Resign!” They had come to protest the PDP’s decision to participate in an interim government, announced the day before, which included many members of the previous regime. When the PDP’s leader, Najib Chebbi, showed up at the office, the young men swarmed around him and taunted him with slogans. Policemen shot tear gas into the street soon after, to disperse the gathering crowd. It was hard to miss the irony that the police, who only days before were protecting the Ben Ali regime, were now protecting the former opposition.
Even though the numbers seem relatively small, the presence of Islamists among the protesters is a cause of concern for many secular Tunisians.
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