Tunisian Speaker Rached Ghannouchi has survived the 20-hour accountability session that ended Thursday morning, but that didn't stop the hail of criticism against him.
Namely, a great number of deputies and officials from Tunisia's opposition Free Destourian Party deemed the congratulation of the speaker to Head of Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez al-Sarraj as a “flagrant mistake and an act that doesn’t fall under his capacities.”
The session failed to endorse the Free Destourian Party’s refusal of any foreign intervention in Libya – a total of 94 deputies voted in favor of the bill while 68 objected and 7 abstained from voting.
Head of Tunisia's Free Destourian Party Abir Moussa stated that the speaker has committed several violations since occupying his post. According to Moussa, he exploited the coronavirus pandemic to pass bills that serve his own agenda.
The Free Destourian Party will pursue its struggle to “liberate Tunisia from the rule of the government coalition," she added.
In the same context, Second Deputy Speaker Tarek Ftiti said that Ghannouchi made a mistake when he contacted the Turkish President and the Turkish Speaker without notifying the parliament, adding to that the act of congratulating Sarrraj. Ftiti urged him to come forward and vow not to do such slips again.
Further, Head of the Islamist Dignity Coalition Seifeddine Makhlouf saw the accountability session as a play to waste efforts instead of approving bills and holding talks with the government concerning several projects.
In response to the accusations and criticism, Ghannouchi stressed that the parliamentarian diplomacy shouldn’t contradict official diplomacy which is set by the head of state in consultation with the prime minister, and it is lowered through state institutions, including parliament."
Yet, he promised to consider the "advice" addressed to him by MPs during the dialogue session. Also, he warned that the ongoing war in Libya might expand to Tunisia.
Responding to Abir Moussa’s accusation of him being loyal to Turkey and Qatar, he assured that congratulating Sarraj over the phone was part of the protocol.
Notably, followers of the Free Destourian Party protested on Wednesday in Tunis and chanted slogans demanding the departure of Ghannouchi.
