Progressive Democratic Party (Tunisia)

The Progressive Democratic Party (Arabic: al - Hizb الحزب الديمقراطي التقدمي ad Dīmuqrāṭī at- Taqaddumī, French Parti Démocrate progressiste, abbreviation PDP) was a liberal and secular party in Tunisia. It was founded in 1983 as a Progressive Socialist merger, in 1988 officially approved and renamed Progressive Democratic Party in 2001. Under the rule of Zine el- Abidine Ben Ali, she was a legal opposition party, but it was exposed to political repression. After the revolution in Tunisia 2010/2011 she was then one of the main secular parties. It was led by Ahmed Nejib Chebbi and Maya Jribi. In April 2012, it merged with other parties to the Republican Party.

Under the rule of Ben Ali

At its founding, the Progressive Socialist gathered merger ( التجمع الاشتراكي التقدمي, French Rassemblement Socialiste progressiste ) opposition of various currents: from former Marxists towards democracy activists and progressive Muslims. Even after she was admitted by the Home Office in 1988, the party had to face of government-owned media, led by Nejib Chebbi persecution by the police and attacks. At the elections of 1989 to 1999, she took part without success: Your share of the vote was between 0.1 and 0.3 %. As a result, it was not represented in Parliament and also received no financial support from the state.

2001, named the merger in order Progressive Democratic Party. To draw attention to the lack of democracy in Tunisia, she decided in 2004 to boycott the election. Maya Jribi sparked Nejib Chebbi in 2006 as General Secretary from. She was the first woman to head a Tunisian party. As a court to force the party to move their party headquarters in Tunis, Chebbi and Jribi occurred in October 2007 in a 20- day hunger strike. The Ben Ali government reversed the decision on then and the reputation of the party increased significantly. After a tailored precisely to him law Nejib Chebbi excluded from the 2009 presidential election, the party reiterated its call for a boycott.

After the Tunisian Revolution 2011

After the flight of Ben Ali from Tunisia Nejib Chebbi was appointed on 17 January 2011 as the Minister for Regional Development in the transitional government. In the campaign for election to the Constituent Assembly in October 2011, the PDP took a decidedly anti - Islamist course. She appeared as the main opponent of the current as a favorite Ennahda movement. Unlike the Congress for the Republic ( CPR), with which it was in competition for the votes of the secular middle class, the PDP joined a coalition of strictly. She led a campaign on the Western model with intensive use of media in which they are a part, relied on its past as prinzpientreue opposition to the old regime, on the other hand attacked Ennahda sharp. The opposition to the Islamist party was the main point of their campaign advertising and repressed all substantive issues.

In the election, the PDP did surprisingly weak from: She had 17 deputies and thus 7.8% of a total of 217 seats in the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia. After this defeat, the Republican Party was founded as a " new party of the center " on the fifth Party Congress of the Progressive Party on April 9, 2012, which was joined the Afek Tounes and several other liberal and secular parties and independents.