Ambassador Vicki Ann Cremona had what the Foreign Ministry called “a very frank and cordial meeting” with Rached Ghannouchi, spiritual leader and head of the Ennahda Party, which is leading the democratic coalition that heads the constituent assembly in Tunisia.

The Ennahda Party, which won 40% of the votes in the first truly democratic elections in Tunisia, defines itself as a moderate Islamist party, and it has formed a national unity government with the Ettakatol movement and the Republican Congress Party. Mr Ghannouchi advocates democracy, tolerance and equal rights between men and women. His party has pronounced itself in favour of a parliamentary democracy, which would ensure a voice to everyone, of any tendency that is democratically elected.

The party has been accused of tolerating religious extremists, but it maintains that in a democracy, even these groups have the right to exist, and to express themselves. Mr Ghannouchi sustains that in a truly democratic environment, these groups will gradually convince themselves that their brand of Islam is not the right one.

The ambassador and Mr Ghannouchi discussed Malta’s relations with Tunisia. Mr Ghannouchi expressed a strong sentiment of closeness towards Malta and the Maltese.

Mr Ghannouchi was against President Bourguiba’s efforts to create a lay state, and created an Islamic tendency movement. This landed him in prison, where he was actually condemned to death. His party had actually planned a coup d’état for 8 November, 1987, but then Prime Minister Ben Ali staged his coup d’état one day before. He freed Mr Ghannouchi of the death sentence, but refused to legalise the Ennahda Party.

Mr Ghannouchi had to seek exile, first in Algeria, and then in London, where he spent 20 years and was granted refugee status. During this time, many of the members of his party were imprisoned and tortured – the current Prime Minister, Hamadi Jebali, spent 15 years in prison, 10 of which were spent in solitary confinement. Mr Ghannouchi made a triumphant comeback on 30 January, 2011, 15 days after Ben Ali fled the country. His party has gone from strength to strength, and is promoting a new political philosophy, based on Islamic principles of tolerance and inclusion.