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TUNIS — New political uncertainties gripped Tunisia on Thursday, a day after officials moved quickly to contain the fallout from the assassination of a leading opposition figure. A plan to reshape the Islamist-led administration in favor of a national unity government encountered strong resistance as protesters again demonstrated on the streets of the capital and elsewhere.
TUNIS — Tunisia’s governing Islamist-led party on Thursday rejected a proposal by the prime minister to form a government of national unity, deepening the country’s political crisis a day after a leading opposition politician was assassinated outside his home.
The country’s dominant Ennahda Party rejected the plan to dissolve the government, as proposed Wednesday by Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali.
The announcement by the party, Ennahda, revealed growing strains within a movement that has promoted its blend of Islamist politics and pluralism as a model for the region. As it rejected the proposal by the prime minister, Hamadi Jebali, a member of Ennahda, the group also publicly rebuked one of its most senior leaders and rejected his efforts to calm the political crisis.
“The prime minister did not ask the opinion of his party,” Abdelhamid Jelassi, Ennahda’s vice president, said in a statement reported on the party’s Web site and in Tunisian news reports. “We in Ennahda believe Tunisia needs a political government now. We will continue discussions with others parties about forming a coalition government.”
“The prime minister did not ask the opinion of his party,” Abdelhamid Jelassi, Ennahda’s vice president, said in a statement reported on the party’s Web site that rejected the proposal to replace the government with technocrats not affiliated with any party. “We in Ennahda believe Tunisia needs a political government now. We will continue discussions with other parties about forming a coalition government.”
The statement appeared to inject a new element of political tension into an already fraught and fragile situation in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings more than two years ago.
The political standoff came as protesters clashed with riot police officers in several cities, and as the country’s powerful trade union federation called for a general strike on Friday, the first in more than 30 years. In Tunis, shuttered stores, tear gas and running street battles recreated the atmosphere of the uprising against President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali two years ago, but with none of the hope. Instead, many worried about a growing instability.
Anxiety about the assassination of the opposition figure, Chokri Belaid, also reverberated to Egypt, where security officials said plainclothes guards had been assigned to guard the homes of prominent opponents of Egypt’s Islamist-dominated government. The worries were amplified because of a fatwa issued by a hard-line Egyptian cleric saying that opponents of President Mohamed Morsi should be killed. The fatwa specifically targeted Mohamed ElBaradei, a former United Nations diplomat and leader of Egypt’s largest secular-leaning opposition bloc, which led him to request the protection. “Regime silent as another fatwa gives license to kill opposition in the name of Islam,” Mr. ElBaradei wrote in a Twitter message. “Religion yet again used and abused.”
The troubles in Tunisia, where the Arab uprisings started more than two years ago, unsettled the region, endangering a country that was credited with avoiding the chaos plaguing some its neighbors. In the same way some had held up Tunisia’s transition as an example, politicians in the region studied the killing and saw a broader warning.
Residents of Tunis said hundreds of protesters — far fewer than on Wednesday — took to the streets on Thursday while the French Embassy said on its Web site that it would close its schools in the capital on Friday and Saturday for fear of renewed outbursts of violence.
The killing of the opposition leader, Chokri Belaid, echoed in a region that has closely watched Tunisia’s democratic experiment, blending Islamist and center-left parties in a coalition government. His death was seen as a blow to the country’s turbulent transition, raising the possibility that the political violence in Tunisia had reached a dangerous new level.
France is the former colonial power in Tunisia and has traditionally had a strong diplomatic presence here.
In the southern mining city of Gafsa, riots broke out and the police fired tear gas at demonstrators who threw stones, a local radio station reported. The city is known as a powerful base of support for Mr. Belaid, who was a fierce advocate for the miners.
In the southern mining city of Gafsa, riots broke out and the police fired tear gas at demonstrators who threw stones, a local radio station reported. The city is known as a powerful base of support for Mr. Belaid, the slain politician.
A regional headquarters of Ennahda was burned down in the town of Siliana, according to local news media, one of more than a dozen party offices attacked by protesters in the last two days. The French Embassy said on its Web site that it would close its schools in the capital on Friday and Saturday for fear of renewed outbursts of violence
Some reports also spoke of tear gas being fired in the capital as protesters again converged on the Interior Ministry headquarters in what has been depicted as the worst crisis since the revolt that overthrew Tunisia’s autocratic leader, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, in January 2011.
In one of the most disturbing aspects of the situation, Mr. Belaid had himself warned about Tunisia’s troubling turn toward violence and called for a national dialogue to combat it. He took special aim at Ennahda, accusing the Islamist group of turning a blind eye to crimes perpetrated by hard-line Islamists known as Salafis, including attacking Sufi shrines and liquor stores.
Fresh unrest loomed with the prospect of a general strike on Friday on the same day as the funeral of Mr. Belaid, likely to be a highly emotional event in its own right.
There have been no arrests in the killing, and no suspect has been identified. The governing party has condemned the assassination. A funeral for Mr. Belaid was scheduled for Friday, raising fears of further unrest.
Additionally, Friday, the Muslim holy day, has been associated with unrest and protest since the beginning of the revolts that overthrew or challenged dictatorial regimes across the Arab world and North Africa. Mr. Belaid was one of Tunisia’s best-known human rights defenders and a fierce critic of the ruling Islamist party.
Anxiety about the assassination reverberated in Egypt, where political feuds have been eclipsed by street clashes between protesters and the riot police. Security officials said plainclothes guards had been assigned to guard the homes of prominent opponents of Egypt’s Islamist-dominated government. The worries were amplified because of a fatwa issued by a hard-line Egyptian cleric saying that opponents of President Mohamed Morsi should be killed. The fatwa specifically mentioned Mohamed ElBaradei, a former United Nations diplomat and leader of Egypt’s largest secular-leaning opposition bloc, which led him to request the protection.
His killing placed dangerous new strains on a society struggling to reconcile its identity as a long-vaunted bastion of Arab secularism with its new role as a proving ground for one of the region’s ascendant Islamist parties.
“Regime silent as another fatwa gives license to kill opposition in the name of Islam,” Mr. ElBaradei wrote in a Twitter message. “Religion yet again used and abused.”
The explosion of popular anger, which led to the death of a police officer in the capital, posed a severe challenge to Ennahda, which came to power promising a model government that blended Islamist principles with tolerant pluralism.
On Thursday, Mr. Morsi addressed the issue in a speech, saying that political violence “has become one of the most important challenges that face the Arab Spring revolutions.”
Mr. Belaid was shot and killed outside his home in an upscale Tunis neighborhood as he was getting into his car on Wednesday morning. The interior minister, citing witnesses, said two unidentified gunmen had fired on Mr. Belaid, striking him with four bullets.
In what seemed to be a direct challenge to religious hard-liners — as well as an attempt to avoid the criticism directed at Ennahda — he condemned those “who claim to speak for religion” and who “permit killing based on political differences.”
The killing, which analysts said was the first confirmed political assassination here since Mr. Ben Ali was driven from power, was a dark turn for the country that has come to symbolize the Arab Spring movement. It resonated in countries like Egypt and Libya that are struggling to contain political violence while looking to Tunisia’s turbulent but hopeful transition as a reassuring example.
“This is terrorism itself,” he said.
The authorities have not announced any arrests in connection with Mr. Belaid’s killing, saying only that witnesses said the gunmen had appeared to be no more than 30 years old. Among Mr. Belaid’s colleagues and relatives, suspicions immediately fell on the hard-line Islamists known as Salafists, some of whom have marred the transition with acts of violence, including attacks on liquor stores and Sufi mausoleums.
Kareem
Fahim reported from Tunis, and David D. Kirkpatrick from Antakya, Turkey. Monica Marks contributed reporting from Tunis, Alan Cowell from Paris, and Rick Gladstone from New York.
Mr. Belaid, a leading member of Tunisia’s leftist opposition alliance, criticized the governing party for turning a blind eye to criminal acts by the Salafists, and had received a string of death threats for his political stands, his family said.
In a chilling prelude to his death, in a television interview on Tuesday, Mr. Belaid accused Ennahda of giving “an official green light” to political violence. Separately, he accused “Ennahda mercenaries and Salafists” of attacking a meeting of his supporters on Saturday.
His wife, Besma Khalfaoui, blamed Ennahda and told Tunisia’s state news agency that the authorities had ignored her husband’s pleas for protection during four months of death threats.
The party vigorously denied any role in the killing, but the damage to its reputation seemed difficult to repair.
Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center, said the assassination was a blow to the aspirations of Islamist parties taking the reins in democratic transitions in the region, most notably in Egypt and Tunisia. In Egypt, he said, the Islamists have failed to build consensus and trust, relying instead on a narrow majoritarianism. In Tunisia, he said, they built a coalition with liberals but failed to take a stand against more hard-line Islamists competing for support on their right.
“Facing down extremists — Islamists find that very difficult,” Mr. Shaikh said.
In Tunisia, he said, the extremists included not only Salafis but more militant actors closer to Al Qaeda. “They have not been very quiet in terms of their intentions, and yet Ennahda has not taken them on,” he said.
In Tunisia, some hoped that the killing would serve as a warning not just about the dangers of political violence, but also about the authorities’ refusal to confront it. Amna Guellali, a Human Rights Watch researcher based in Tunis, said the group had documented numerous attacks on activists, journalists and political figures by various groups, including the Salafis.
“The victims filed complaints to local tribunals, but never heard anything back,” she said. “There is a trend of impunity. This impunity can lead to emboldening” attackers.
“Yesterday, Chokri called for a national dialogue to confront political violence,” she said. “This just adds to the tragedy.”
Monica Marks and Kareem Fahim reported from Tunis, and Alan Cowell from Paris. Reporting was contributed by Mayy el Sheikh from Cairo; David D. Kirkpatrick from Antakya, Turkey; and Rick Gladstone from New York.
