''Exiled head of Tunisian Islamist party to return
The leader of the main Tunisian Islamist party said he plans to return his homeland soon
AFP, Saturday 15 Jan 2011
The exiled head of the main Tunisian Islamist party said on Saturday he planned to return to his homeland following the overthrow of former strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
"The Tunisian intifada has succeeded in collapsing the dictatorship," Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the banned Ennahdha, said by telephone from London.
"Now is it for the political parties to try to replace a dictator's regime with a democratic one. I'm preparing myself. I'm preparing my return," the 69-year-old activist declared.
He said he had been in contact with other opposition leaders and would be prepared to join a government of national unity, but added that this would be difficult, as years of persecution had left his allies disorganised.
"It's possible but not easy," he said. "Under dictatorship everything is destroyed. It takes time to reorganise political society and civil society. There is a sort of fragmentation. It takes time to agree on common ground."
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