The expectations of Tunisian Parliament Speaker Rashid Ghannouchi were true when he confirmed a few days ago that the voting session to withdraw confidence from him would turn into a moment to renew and trust him, after the fall of the list submitted by a group of blocs and their inability to achieve the quorum to pass them with 109 votes out of a total of 217 votes.
97 deputies voted with the passage of the no-confidence list, 16 deputies rejected, while the total number of canceled and white papers reached 20, out of a total of 133 authorized.
The plenary session to withdraw confidence from the speaker of the parliament - which spanned two hours - was characterized by severe cramping between its deputies and supporters of Ghannouchi, which prompted the president of the session to stop it more than once.
Ghannouchi comments
After the fall of the no-confidence list from him, Ghannouchi rushed to post a post on his official Facebook page that carried the phrase "Praise be to God", while declaring during a press conference that he voluntarily accepted the confidence-renewal test for him out of his confidence in the status of Tunisian democracy, and that he did not come to parliament on the back of Tank but rather democratic mechanisms.
Ghannouchi said that Parliament has been subjected to campaigns of defamation and media and political distortion for some time, and has launched a general call for grouping among the various state institutions, reiterating the parliament’s readiness to deal with the Presidency of the Republic and the presidency of the government and provide them with full support.
Ghannouchi was elected Speaker of the Tunisian Parliament on November 13, 2019 by 123 votes, and for a term of 5 years to come, to occupy his first official position in the country following his return from exile during the revolution that toppled the regime of late President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Observers believe that the fall of the no-confidence list from the parliament speaker will have detailed repercussions on the political scene and the upcoming party alliances, whether in the parliament that has ended its parliament or in the next government headed by Prime Minister-designate Hisham Al-Mishishi.
Winners and losers
The leader of the Ennahda movement, Mohamed El-Goumani, described the fall of the no-confidence list as a painful blow to the enemies of democracy in Tunisia, from the Abeer Moussa bloc in parliament and those who followed it, and those who were trapped in the democratic path abroad who spent money to achieve their goals.
He explained that Ghannouchi's presidency of Parliament after this democratic test confirms once again that the balances in Parliament remain unchanged, and that the Ennahda bloc in Parliament remains a solid front that is difficult to isolate.
In the calculations of profit and loss, Al-Qomani says that the biggest winner from the fall of the list is the "winners of the values of democracy in Tunisia", while the losers "are those who aligned with the Free Constitutional Party gang and its president, Abeer Moussa, and thus lost the confidence of their rules," he said.
Al-Qomani called Al-Nahda to be more visible in the coming political stage, and to continue to consolidate the alliance she went to in the parliament with the Al-Karama coalition and the heart of Tunisia and the future bloc, and - in return - to build confidence with its opponents, with the exception of the Free Constitutional Party, to pave the way for the political stage. Coming.
And the parliamentary blocs signed the withdrawal of confidence from Ghannouchi held a press conference, during which they considered that the result of the vote to withdraw confidence carries important political messages related to Ghannouchi's loss of legitimacy at the head of Parliament, given the number of deputies demanding his departure.
Marwan Felfal called on the member of the "Long Live Tunisia" bloc - in his speech to Al Jazeera Net - the Speaker of Parliament to draw a lesson from the session, and to secure an honorable exit from Parliament by submitting his resignation.
He pointed out that Ghannouchi lost all factors of his stay at the head of parliament, and it became an element of permanent crisis even if he succeeded in ensuring his survival, stressing the determination of the same blocs during the opening of the upcoming parliamentary session to isolate Ghannouchi and address it with all available legal forms.