Infighting in Tunisia causes rupture in ruling party
Tunisia is in dire need of stability, however there are reports that its ruling party risks breaking apart as liberal factions claim the 88 year-old President is trying to install family members in the Party's leadership succession. The Nidaa Tounes party won 88 of the 217 seats in last October's elections, but now 35 of its more liberal members look as it they may break away to form their own party. Tunisia is in the midst of building a physical barrier along most of its porous frontier with Libya as it fights a growing threat from ISIS militants entering the country.

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A power struggle within Tunisia’s secularist ruling party is threatening to destabilise the government of the country hailed as the greatest success story of the “Arab spring”.

Violence broke out between rival Nidaa Tounes factions at the weekend when young men armed with wooden clubs prevented dissident party members from entering a planned leadership meeting, smashing windows of the five-star hotel in the tourist resort of Hammamat where the party gathering was due to be held.

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Dissident MPs, who believe Tunisia’s 88-year-old President Beji Caid Essebsi is attempting to install a family dynasty to rule the country, moved instead to another hotel and accused his son and another senior presidential adviser of encouraging the violence. The growing dispute within the party is pitting conservative supporters of the President and his son, Hafedh, against more liberal Nidaa MPs, at least 35 of whom are close to forming a breakaway party of their own, insiders say.

Nidaa won 85 out of 217 seats in parliamentary elections last October after campaigning on a strongly anti-Islamist platform and defeating the moderate Islamist Ennahda party – which itself came to power after the ousting of former dictator Ben Ali during the first revolution of the Arab spring. It formed a loose governing coalition with Ennahda and two smaller parties. The loss of 35 Nidaa MPs would make Ennahda – which has 69 MPs – once again Tunisia’s largest party.

Tunisian demonstrators stage a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the Tunisian General Labour Union office in Tunis on 31 October. They are demanding an increase in the wages of private sector workers (Getty)

Nidaa was formed by President Essebsi in 2012, bringing together a broad coalition of leftists, liberals and businessmen, many linked to the Ben Ali regime and all unified in opposition to the then Islamist-led ruling coalition. President Essebsi was elected president for a five-year term last year, but his advanced age has led to intense speculation over who might succeed him.

Beji Caid Essebsi is an old member of the totalitarian regime. He’s an old fox <p>Lazhar Akremi</p>

There is frustration within party ranks that it has become so centralised around one individual, and that President Essebsi’s son, installed as the party’s vice-president, has pushed for greater prominence for former members of the Ben Ali regime. Critics also say Hafedh Caid Essebsi is too close to some of the country’s wealthiest oligarchs and has now begun courting the support of Ennahda party members.

The rival camp is led by the party’s secretary-general, Mohsen Marzouk, who is widely believed also have his eye on the ultimate prize of the presidency.

Lazhar Akremi, a prominent founding Nidaa member now in the dissident faction told The Independent that President Essebsi was putting his family’s interests before that of the party, and was acting undemocratically. “Beji Caid Essebsi is an old member of the totalitarian regime,” he said. “He’s an old fox.”

The Essebsi family has links with Tunisia’s aristocracy and the monarchy that was deposed almost 60 years ago, and dissident party members believe the younger Mr Essebsi, who only became very active within the party over the past year, is acting out of a presumption of hereditary entitlement. Many see echoes of Ben Ali, who allowed his wife’s family to exploit their ties to the presidency, eventually monopolising much of the economy.

“There’s a monarchical culture... which we can’t accept,” Mr Akremi said.

In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Show all 32 1 / 32 In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The coffin of Denis Thwaites is carried from an RAF C-17, which repatriated the bodies of eight British nationals killed in the Tunisia terror attack, at RAF Brize Norton near Oxford in Britain In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The coffin of John Stollery is carried from an RAF C-17, which repatriated the bodies of eight British nationals killed in the Tunisia terror attack, at RAF Brize Norton near Oxford in Britain In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The coffin of Elaine Thwaites, one of the victims of the terrorist attack, is taken from the RAF C-17 aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in Tunisia In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Hearses carrying the victim's of last Friday's terrorist attack arrive at Tunis Airport Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia An RAF C17 transport aircraft arrives at RAF Brize Norton Airport in Oxfordshire carrying the bodies of 8 British people killed in the Tunisia gun attack Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Ambulances carrying the victim's of the terrorist attack arrive at Tunis Airport Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Armed police continue to patrol Marhaba beach in Sousse Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia National guard members patrol at the beach near the Imperiale Marhaba hotel, which was attacked by a gunman in Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Military personnel attending to injured British nationals on board an RAF C-17 aircraft en route back to the United Kingdom, in Tunisia In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Military personnel attending to injured British nationals on board an RAF C-17 aircraft en route back to the United Kingdom, in Tunisia In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Holidaymakers lay flowers on Marhaba beach Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia 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the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Port el Kantaoui, on the outskirts of Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The front of the Marhaba hotel Getty In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Tunisian Ennahdha party member and former minister Houcine Jazir speaks with Belgium survivor couple Corman (R) and Claude Pesser after a mass shooting in the resort town of Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The bloodstained belongings of a tourist are seen on the sand in the resort town of Sousse AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia A broken glass window of the Imperiale Marhaba hotel is seen after a gunman opened fire at the beachside hotel in Sousse Reuters In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Blood stains cover the ground at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse, Tunisia after mass shooting Fethi Belais/AFP/Getty In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Policemen patrolling the beach in front of the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse where tributes have been laid to the dead AFP/Getty In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia People stand in silence next to flowers during a gathering at the scene of the attack in Sousse, Tunisia Getty In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Messages and flowers are left on Marhaba beach where 38 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Souuse Getty Images In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Police officers control the crowd while surrounding a man suspected to be involved in opening fire on a beachside hotel in Sousse, Tunisia In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Medics help an injured man in Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia A body lies on a street in Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia Members of the Tunisian security forces in an armoured vehicle patrol a street in Sousse In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia The beach where the massacre took place Lionel Tunisiano/Twitter In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia A general view of the deserted pool and deck chairs at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel EPA In pictures: Tunisia hotel attack Tunisia A woman looks toward a glass door shattered by a bullet at Imperial Marhaba Hotel EPA

Mr Akremi resigned as minister of relations between the government and parliament early last month, citing corruption within the party. He told The Independent that at least 35 Nidaa MPs were breaking off in order to form a new party.

Monica Marks, a Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, confirmed that Ennahda has been quietly building alliances with the Essebsi faction inside Nidaa because it is less vehemently anti-Islamist. Mr Marzouk is a frequent visitor to the strongly anti-Islamist UAE, while the younger Mr Essebsi had an unannounced meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a close ally of Ennahda, in August.