Mohamed Harmel (محمد حرمل) (November 1929 – 18 September 2011) was a

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. Between 1981 and 1993 he served as First Secretary of the

Tunisian Communist Party The Tunisian Communist Party ( ar, الحزب الشيوعي التونسي ' ; french: Parti Communiste Tunisien) was a Marxist political party in Tunisia. The PCT was founded on 21 May 1934 as the Tunisian federation of the French Communist P ...

, and in 2007 he became an honorary president of the Ettajdid Movement. He was a member of the country's Chamber of Advisors (Upper legislative assembly) from 2008 till its dissolution in March 2011.

Life

Early years

Born into an artisan "chaouchi"

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

family, Harmel studied at the city's

Sadiki College Sadiki College, also known as ''Collège Sadiki'' ( aeb, المدرسة الصادقية, "El-Sadqiya High School"), is a '' lycée'' (high school) in Tunis, Tunisia. It was established in 1875. Associations formed by its alumni played a major rol ...

. During this period he engaged politically with the

, and distributed leaflets in support of

Tunisian independence Tunisian independence was a process that occurred from 1952 to 1956 between France and a separatist movement, led by Habib Bourguiba. He became the first Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia after negotiations with France successfully had b ...

. He was arrested in September 1949 following a street demonstration organised by the "Tunisian Committee for Liberty and Peace", and held for several months in the (non-military) prison in Tunis. In May 1951, at the fourth party congress of the Communist Party, he was elected a member of the Party Central Committee. Following a study period at a teacher training college, in 1951 he embarked on a teaching career at Djebel Abiod (as it was then known) and in other towns. He pursued his teaching career when possible till 1956, but the years were not entirely without incident for him in other respects. He was arrested in February 1952 at

Béja Béja ( ar, باجة ') is a city in Tunisia. It is the capital of the Béja Governorate. It is located from Tunis, between the Medjerdah River and the Mediterranean, against the foothills of the Khroumire, the town of Béja is situated on the ...

during a demonstration against the deportation of Nationalist and Communist leaders, and sent to the detention camp at

Téboursouk Téboursouk ( aeb, تبرسق ') is a town and commune in the Béja Governorate, Tunisia. It is located at 36° 27′ 26″N, 009° 14′ 54″E. Population In 2004 it had a total population of 10,987, after inciting dock workers to boycott a French ship transporting military equipment. This time he was released only when the French president,

Pierre Mendès France Pierre Isaac Isidore Mendès France (; 11 January 190718 October 1982) was a French politician who served as prime minister of France for eight months from 1954 to 1955. As a member of the Radical Party, he headed a government supported by a co ...

visited Tunisia on 31 July 1954, as part of what turned out to be the buildup to a peaceful transition to

less than two years later. Recalling these experiences much later in his life, Hamel explained that he had been "processed through the military court" and "could have been given a death sentence", adding that "the mood often became heated between Destorian and

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

during

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

imprisonment at Téboursouk, and later, each time they encountered each other while leafleting in the streets.

Party office

In May 1956, at the fifth congress of the

, he was elected to the party politburo and secretariat. In 1957 his name was at the top of the party's candidate list in the Tunis electoral district for the municipal elections. In January 1963, after a plot to assassinate the president was uncovered, the

Communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

was banned and Harmel was arrested in the same month, along with other members of the party leadership, Abdelhamid Ben Mustapha and Hédi Jrad. A few months later they were released. Discussing the matter later Harmel said that

Habib Bourguiba Habib Bourguiba (; ar, الحبيب بورقيبة, al-Ḥabīb Būrqībah; 3 August 19036 April 2000) was a Tunisian lawyer, nationalist leader and statesman who led the country from 1956 to 1957 as the prime minister of the Kingdom of T ...

had accused them of having supported the 1962 assassination plot, even though he would have been strongly opposed to it.

Exile and party ban

In 1963 Hamel embarked on a lengthy period abroad, spending time in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, in order to recover his health and "preserve his life" (''"gagner avie"'') as he would put it. After an eight-year exile he returned to Tunisia in 1971. Mohamed Harmel was elected Party First Secretary in February 1981 at the eighth party congress. The congress took place under conditions of secrecy because the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

was still banned.

The ban lifted

Harmel recalled later a conversation he had with President Bourguiba on 18 July 1981 at Skanès (Monastir). Harmel had requested the meeting in order to thank the president for having lifted the country's eighteen-year ban on Communist publications. Bourguiba asked what had become of the Communists, who had been so much a part of the Tunisian political landscape in the 1940s and 1950s. "We are no longer visible, Mt President, because you decided to ban

activities". After a few seconds of reflection Bourguiba replied, in magisterial terms, that the ban should be lifted at once. Later on the same day the ban on the

was lifted. On 7 October 1981 Harmel founded , a weekly tabloid newspaper. At this stage the paper was the official organ of the Tunisian Communist Party and Harmel, as Party Secretary, became its first Director. Despite periodic government bans, the newspaper would outlive the Tunisian Communist Party itself, banned permanently by the government only in 2009. Meanwhile, the party's ninth party congress was able to be held openly in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

in June 1987: Harmel was re-elected to the post of First Secretary.

Leader of Ettajdid

The Tunisian Communist Party reinvented itself as the Ettajdid Movement (Movement for Renewal / حركة التجديد) in 1993. In addition to the rebranding, the change seems to have involved the abandonment of certain old Communist dogmas and a more accommodating attitude to the mainstream Tunisian political establishment. Harmel's presence in a leading position within the new movement was nevertheless a mark of continuity. He was elected and served as a deputy in the legislative assembly between 1994 and 1999. At one stage he became President of the Commission for Parliamentary Immunity, in the process becoming the first opposition deputy to become president of a commission. The 1999 presidential election was subject to an upper age limit of 70, which debarred him from standing, but Harmel asserted that he would not have stood for president even if he had been permitted to do so. Instead he unequivocally backed Ben Ali for re-election. The ongoing theme of his politics was "consensual democracy": voters were reminded of the importance of the "gains of " in the Ettajdid electoral manifesto for the 1999 legislature elections. This was a reference to the coming to power as president on that date of

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ( ar, زين العابدين بن علي, translit=Zayn al-'Ābidīn bin 'Alī; 3 September 1936 – 19 September 2019), commonly known as Ben Ali ( ar, بن علي) or Ezzine ( ar, الزين), was a Tunisian politician ...

. For the 2004 presidential election Mohamed Harmel was again debarred from standing on account of his age. He was 75. He did participate in that year's elections for the legislature, but failed to be re-elected despite his name appearing at the top of the Ettajdid party list for the Tunis electoral district. Following this disappointing result the Ettajdid national executive issued a communiqué on 12 December lamenting the "exclusion" of their party general secretary from the National Assembly as damaging to the pluralism in the chamber. According to the historian Larbi Chouikha this communiqué contained echoes of the 1990s when the Communist Party was advocating "consensual democracy" combined with power.

Final years

Mohamed Harmel stood down as Ettajdid Party Secretary at the party conference of 30 July 2007: he was succeeded by Ahmed Brahim.« Un parti d'opposition change de chef, veut une coalition laïque », ''Agence France-Presse'', 6 August 2007 He was immediately proclaimed, and unanimously elected, Honorary Party President, which was a post expressly created to mark the movement's appreciation of the historic scope of his political contributions. According to Brahim, interviewed a few months later, it was Harmel who had himself wanted this change at the top of the party, having in effect already let it be known that he would not be standing for re-election. Elsewhere, however, there are signs that he was not entirely relaxed about losing power and influence within the movement. Directly before the congress of July 2007 he prepared two pieces for the party newspaper, Attariq Al Jadid. These were headed, "In all candour" in the Arab language section and "Question mark" in the francophone section. They were not included in the special Party Congress edition of the paper, and in an open letter to readers published in August 2008 Harmel explained why he had not written for the paper again, because of management conditions imposed in respect of his contributions. In 2007 he insisted in an interview that he had laid down all control organisational responsibility of his own will, also explaining that the 2007 party congress had never specified the nature of his role as Honorary Party President, which some had been content to leave as a fudge in a way that was less than comradely and that shocked him. But he insisted that he was nevertheless not riled by the situation. The choices had been his own, made with a good conscience, and it was "normal" that others would take over. In 2008 President Ben Ali appointed him to the

Chamber of Advisors The Chamber of Advisors ( ar, مجلس المستشارين, '), also called Chamber of Councillors, was the upper house of the Parliament of Tunisia. It was created by a 2002 amendment to the Tunisian constitution and was replaced by a unicamer ...

, which was the upper house under Tunisia's bicameral legislative structure. The category under which he was nominated was that of "personalities and national experts" (''"personnalités et les compétences nationales"'') which meant that he took the seat vacated by the lawyer, Habib Achour. Mohamed Harmel died on 18 September 2011. Paying tribute, his successor Ahmed Brahim declared that Tunisia had lost a great patriot and great fighter in the service of the people, for democracy and progress.''"La Tunisie perd un grand patriote et un grand militant pour la cause de la démocratie et du progrès au service du peuple."''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harmel, Mohamed Ettajdid Movement politicians Tunisian Communist Party politicians Members of the Chamber of Advisors Alumni of Sadiki College People from Tunis 1929 births 2011 deaths