Battling High Expectations

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  "authors": [
    "Sarah Yerkes"
  ],
  "type": "commentary",
  "blog": "Diwan",
  "centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
  "centers": [
    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
    "Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center"
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  "collections": [
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  "primaryCenter": "Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center",
  "programAffiliation": "MEP",
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  "projects": [
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  "regions": [
    "North Africa",
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Commentary

Diwan

Battling High Expectations

In an interview, Ennahda’s Oussama Sghaier talks about Tunisia’s democracy and the government’s credibility problem.

By Sarah Yerkes

Published on Mar 20, 2018

Oussama Sghaier is a Tunisian politician and parliamentarian from the Ennahda Party. Though he was born in Tunis, Sghaier and his family were forced to flee during the rule of former president Zine al-Abidine ben Ali. After seventeen years of political asylum in Italy, he returned to Tunisia after the 2010–2011 uprising. During his first parliamentary cycle, Sghaier was elected to the committee charged with preparing a constitution. He was also a member of the parliamentary committee on transitional justice. Sghaier was reelected in the 2014 parliamentary elections. In his second parliamentary cycle, he joined the Committee of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development and the Defense and Security Committee. In November 2017, Sghaier was appointed president of the Committee of Tunisian Residents Overseas. In mid-March, Diwan sat with Sghaier to discuss the current political situation in Tunisia.

About the Author

Sarah Yerkes

Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Sarah Yerkes is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Middle East Program, where her research focuses on Tunisia’s political, economic, and security developments as well as state-society relations in the Middle East and North Africa.

Recent Work

Article
Civil Society Restrictions in North Africa: The Impact on Climate-Focused Civil Society Organizations
- Sarah Yerkes
Paper
U.S. Peace Mediation in the Middle East: Lessons for the Gaza Peace Plan
- Amr Hamzawy, Sarah Yerkes, Kathryn Selfe

Political Reform North Africa Tunisia Maghreb

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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