No sooner has Tundu Lissu left the airport building in Dar es Salaam than the cheering breaks out.

Supporters of the Tanzanian opposition party Chadema surrounded the returnee as closely as possible on Wednesday, most of them dressed in the party colors red, white and blue, everyone wants to capture the big moment on their cell phones.

Lissu, the East African country's most prominent opposition politician, spent five years in exile in Belgium.

he never wanted to stay there.

Claudia Bröll

Political correspondent for Africa based in Cape Town.

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"I'm not someone who survives years in exile, I'm too deeply rooted in my country," he told the FAZ on the phone shortly before his departure.

Not even physical complaints after an assassination have changed that.

"There is a lot to do, and my presence is now more than necessary." From the airport he drove directly to a large rally.

The return was made possible because, according to him, the political climate in Tanzania has noticeably improved.

Former, late President John Magufuli had ruled with an iron fist.

Lissu was arrested eight times.

In 2017, he narrowly survived an assassination attempt - which he believed had been ordered by the government.

The assassins shot him sixteen times.

Seriously injured, he was taken out of the country and finally to Belgium.

There he had to undergo a total of 25 operations.

In 2020 he briefly returned to Tanzania to run as an opposition candidate in the presidential elections.

To this day, his supporters are convinced that the elections were rigged and that Lissu was robbed of the rightful victory.

When he received death threats again, he fled to Belgium again.

After Magufuli, a stubborn denier of the corona pandemic, died presumably as a result of a corona infection, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan took over the leadership of the state.

Lissu says that she too initially continued her authoritarian course towards the opposition with arrests, attacks and death threats.

The arrest of Chadema party leader Freeman Mbowe in July 2021 on dubious terrorism charges caused an international sensation.

Mbowe spent eight months in a maximum security prison.

The public prosecutor's office only dropped the charges in March last year.

Lissu hopes for “new rules of the game”

Recently, however, Lissu has noticed a change of heart.

Two weeks ago, President Suluhu Hassan lifted a ban on opposition political rallies that had been in place since 2016.

Political prisoners - about 400 people - were released.

"President Samia" sought dialogue with the opposition parties on an almost weekly basis.

"All of these factors suggest it's time to return," says Lissu.

Just over a year ago he would have been worried about his safety, but now Suluhu Hassan himself has guaranteed it.

His first plan is to initiate a long-discussed constitutional reform and a reform of the electoral laws.

Today's constitution dates from 1977. It guarantees the President a very powerful position.

This determines the occupation of all important state institutions, appoints the electoral commission and all judges.

Magufuli, nicknamed "Bulldozer", knew how to use this power.

His successor also rejected the demands of the opposition for a long time.

After taking office, she emphasized that she first had to "repair" the economy.

Lissu is still confident.

"If we build up a sufficient people's movement, we will be successful." The pressure from the population is enormous.

And for the first time he sees the will to reform on the other side.

The next presidential elections will be held in Tanzania in two years.

He does not yet know whether the opposition veteran who has returned will compete again.

"One or two years is an awfully long time in politics." For him, the priority is to create the conditions for free and fair elections.

"First we have to change the rules of the game before we get back in the game."