Tunis: Tunisia’s governing Islamist party, Al Nahda, thrust into power by the Arab Spring, has agreed to step down after months of political wrangling with a hard-bargaining opposition.

In three weeks, the Al Nahda-led government is to hand over power to an independent caretaker government that will lead the country through elections in the spring. The deal comes as part of negotiations to restart Tunisia’s democratic transition after secular opposition groups, protesting the assassinations of two of their politicians, stalled work on a new constitution and an election law this summer.

The two sides will enter discussions this week mediated by the Tunisian General Labour Union, the nation’s largest. Its deputy secretary-general, Bu Ali Mbarki, announced Al Nahda’s acceptance of the plan on Saturday.

The move comes less than three months after the Islamist government of President Mohammad Mursi of Egypt, also elected during the Arab Spring uprisings, was ousted by the military. Al Nahda officials have repeatedly made statements in recent weeks signalling the party’s readiness to resign as a way to break the political impasse.

The opposition, and the union, have until now pressed for more concrete action. The union has scheduled three weeks for talks on a new government. During that time, the National Constituent Assembly, the body in charge of writing Tunisia’s new constitution, is expected to ratify it and confirm appointments to the election commission, resuming work after a two-month hiatus. After that, Al Nahda’s coalition government will resign.

Political consensus

The assembly, where Al Nahda holds the largest bloc of seats, will remain in place to serve as a check on the new government. Al Nahda decided to step down despite resistance from some of its members, saying Tunisia’s transition to democracy, which began after the president was toppled nearly two years ago, could succeed only with full political consensus.

Party members have criticised their leaders as having given away too much, Rafik Abdul Salam, the former foreign minister, said at a news conference on Monday. “It is being described as the party of concessions,” he said. “We are not ashamed of these concessions, because they are needed by Tunisia and to secure our democratic experience so that Tunisia can reach a safe shore.”

In fact, the country is so polarised, and opposition from leftist and secular parties, including the labour union, has been so dogged, that Al Nahda leaders acknowledge that they are better off having a neutral government that is accepted by all sides to run the elections.

Al Nahda was the largest winner in elections in October 2011, promising a model government that would blend Islamist principles with pluralism. But it has since lost popularity amid economic decline and a growing threat from terrorism. Tunisia has avoided the open violence of Egypt and Libya in its democratic transition since it began the Arab Spring with a popular uprising against President Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali in 2011.

Opposition parties have run a campaign of walkouts, sit-ins and evening rallies since the two assassinations to force the government to resign. Al Nahda countered with its own rallies, using supporters for speeches, music and fireworks. With neither side strong enough to defeat the other, the Islamists and their opponents have ended up coming to the negotiating table. Yet Al Nahda’s nearly two-year journey in government has been one of steady concessions and backing down. It has also been a sharp lesson for the Islamists: Their party has been most weakened by extremist Islamists linked to Al Qaida.

On the retreat

Since the assassination of a prominent leftist politician, Chokri Belaid, in February, which brought accusations that it was soft or even in cahoots with Islamist terrorists, Al Nahda has steadily been on the retreat. After the assassination, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned, saying the government had “disappointed” Tunisians with squabbling instead of leadership.

Jebali was the first to suggest handing power to a government of technocrats. Al Nahda opted for a reshuffle but appointed independent non-party figures to critical posts, including the ministries of interior and justice.

Then, in July, another opposition politician, Mohammad Brahmi, was assassinated in broad daylight in front of his family, bringing another wave of protests against the Al Nahda government, even though the government this time quickly identified the culprits as an extremist Islamic cell linked to Al Qaida, and blamed it for the Belaid assassination as well.

Finally, the ouster of Mursi — allied with the Muslim Brotherhood — encouraged the Tunisian opposition to try to oust the government. Al Nahda responded with further concessions, dropping all of its outstanding constitutional demands, including an article stating that Islam was the religion of the state and another that would have prevented a key rival, former Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi, from running for president.

Working out the details of the agreement remains difficult. Distrust runs high, and as the end of the transition period nears, the political parties have entered a hard-nosed power struggle.

“From 2011, we moved to another agenda, from the demands for a transitional democracy to a real struggle for power,” Abdul Basset Bin Hassen, head of the Arab Institute for Human Rights, said. “Because of the change, we have this tension and a lot of frustration.”