While the Islamists were not organized as a political force during the revolutionary upheaval against Ben Ali, they became somehow the ‘guardians’ of the revolutionary aspirations after winning the 2011 elections. The 2011-14 constitutional government provided Tunisia with a unique experience of a Islamist-secular coalition. The outcome has been the drafting of a new constitution based on a democratic deal. During this two years, however, the political scene was highly polarized in a secular/Islamist divide. In particular the Nahda party played an important role because it found itself caught between a secular political pressure and an Islamic grassroots constituency both pushing for specific but different ‘revolutionary’ reforms. If the final outcome was the integration of the mainstream Islamic party into the democratic institutional deal, it was not, however, a foregone exit of the political struggle. Political opportunities and a zero sum struggle could have led to a civil war or a neo-authoritarian restoration. In this presentation, based on years of fieldwork, I reflect on the Islamists period in power and how they have dealt with the main critical junctures of the revolutionary process.