Habib Bourguiba

Habib Bourguiba (rear RTL الحبيببورقيبة), of his complete name Habib Ben Ali Bourguiba, probably born the August 3rd 1903 with Monastir and deceased the April 6th 2000 with Monastir, was a Tunisian politician .

He becomes at the 31 years age the leader of the movement for independence of the Tunisia. In 1956, its goal being reached, it gets busy to set up a modern State as a president, function which it exerts of the July 25th 1957 with his dismissal the November 7th 1987. During its presidency, a Culte of the personality develops around its person and it then carries the title of “supreme combatant”. However, the education and the defense of the equality between men and women are a priority for him, which in fact an exception among the Arab leaders. Nevertheless, the end of its presidency is marked by the rise of the Clientélisme and the Islamisme.

Youth

Born officially in 1903 in Monastir. It starts then its secondary studies with the prestigious Collège Sadiki of Tunis where it takes down an Arab patent of before being registered with the Lycée Carnot. His/her best friends are then Tahar Sfar and Bahri Guiga. It obtains its baccalaureat in 1924 then is registered with the Sorbonne. It is with Paris that it meets Mathilde Fras. Whereas his/her father dies in 1926, Mathilde gives him a son, Habib Bourguiba Jr., which is born the April 9th 1927 (in one month of its Examen S). It respectively obtains a license in Droit and the higher diploma of political studies of the Private school of political sciences in 1927. It returns then to Tunis to exert the trade of lawyer, parallel to other activities, in particular political: it adheres thus to the Destour, left which militates in favor of the independence of the country.

Nationalist militant

Within this framework, it takes part in the drafting of many articles in the nationalist newspapers of the time like the Voice of the Tunisian and the Tunisian standard . In an article of the February 23rd 1931, it explains why for “people healthy, vigorous, that international competitions or a temporary crisis forced to accept the supervision of a strong State, the contact of a more advanced civilization determines in him a salutary reaction. A true regeneration occurs in him and, thanks to a judicious assimilation of the principles and methods of this civilization, it will fatally manage to carry out by stages its final emancipation. ” When the editorial board of the Voice of the Tunisian resigns, Bourguiba joined the new newspaper, the Tunisian Action , whose first number appears on November 1st 1932. It gets busy, thereafter, to explain the reasons of its resignation of the executive commission until it decides to join together an extraordinary congress of the party, the March 2nd 1934, with Ksar Hellal. This congress ends in the scission in two branches of the party: one preserving, which preserves the name of Destour, and the other modernistic baptized Néo-Destour. This new party is directed by Mahmoud Materi (president), Bourguiba (general secretary), Tahar Sfar (assistant general secretary), Me hamed Bourguiba (treasurer) and Guiga (assistant treasurer).

Hopes and repression

In the middle of the Years 1930, after the nomination of Marcel Peyrouton like Resident general of France in Tunisia, repression is done more violent in the country: Peyrouton prohibits all the newspapers of left still published, in particular socialist Tunisian Tunis and French Humanity and Popular the , on September 1st 1934. The September 3rd, the nationalist militants are the subject of measurements of distance in the Tunisian South: Bourguiba and some of his/her companions are assigned with residence with Kébili then in Borj Lebœuf. However, resistance continues in various forms until the handing-over in freedom of the exiled leaders. In March 1936, Peyrouton is replaced by Armand Guillon whereas, the May 3rd, the Popular front gains the French legislative elections under the control of Leon Blum. This victory raises a hope in the nationalist camp because many militants having studied in the French universities maintain good relationships with the French left.

Bourguiba meets thus Pierre Viénot, under-secretary of State to the Foreign affairs, the July 6th 1936 in Paris. This interview is very badly seen in Tunisia: this is why their later interviews are done in secrecy. But the prudence of the French authorities is opposed to the hopes Tunisian militants and some even think that it is about an illusion. The general resident in Tunisia speaks with end of the year 1936 about reforms and assimilation about Tunisia. These remarks are at the origin of movement social bursting with the beginning of the year 1937. Viénot travels from there to Tunisia reacts by declaring that “some of the private interests of the French of Tunisia do not merge with the interest of France. With Mateur, the confrontations make deaths and casualties but Bourguiba succeeds in being essential like the only leader of the nationalist movement and rejects definitively nationalism panarabe and anti-Westerner. Thus, in spite of the fact that the atmosphere becomes more tended towards the end of the year 1937, Bourguiba maintains the course. In November, it clarifies its strategy at the time of the second congress of Néo-Destour:

Independence will be carried out only according to three formulas:

1. a Revolution popular, violent and generalized, which will liquidate protectorate

2. a French military defeat during a war against another State
3. a peaceful solution, through stages, with the assistance of France and under its aegis.

The imbalance of the report/ratio of the forces between the Tunisian people and France eliminates all the chances from a popular victory. A French military defeat will not help independence because we will fall into the claws from new a Colonialisme. Therefore, there remains to us only the way of the peaceful delivery under the aegis of France.

Whereas the base of the party is agitated and that repression made seven died with Bizerte. The following day, Bourguiba and its companions are stopped and held with the civil prison of Tunis where Bourguiba is the subject of a long interrogation. Néo-Destour is dissolved the April 12th but the militants continue to meet in clandestinity. A few months later, Materi resigns of the presidency of Néo-Destour and Bourguiba replaces it makes it slacken and leads it to Châlon-sur-saône. It is then received with all the honors with Rome in company of Salah Ben Youssef and Slimane Ben Slimane, in January 1943, at the request of Benito Mussolini which hopes to use it to weaken the French resistance in North Africa. The Italian ministry of the foreign affairs thus tries to obtain from him a declaration in their favor. The day before its return, it agrees to deliver a message with the Tunisian people, by the means of Radio operator Bari, “warning it against all the appetites”. On its return to Tunis, the April 8th 1943, it makes sure that its message of 1942 is transmitted to all the population and her militants. By its position, he dissociates collaboration of certain militants with the German occupant (arrived to Tunisia at the end of 1942) and escapes the fate from the Tunisian sovereign, Moncef Bey, which is deposited with the release, in May 1943, by the general Alphonse Juin under the charge of collaboration. The September 13rd, Ben Youssef, general secretary of Néo-Destour, returns from Cairo. A few months later, the Tunisian government engages of the talks which are completed by the signature, the March 20th 1956, of the protocol devoting independence. The March 22nd, Bourguiba defines its following objective:

After one transitional period, all the French forces will have to evacuate Tunisia, including Bizerte.

President of the Republic

Founder of modern Tunisia

The April 8th, it is proceeded to the election of the constituent National Assembly whose Bourguiba becomes for a few days the president. The very same day, it summarizes its project for the country:

We could not forget that we are Arab more, that we are enracinés in the Islamic Civilization, not than we cannot neglect the fact of living second half of the twentieth century. We make a point of taking part in the walk of civilization and of taking seat in the middle of our time.

The April 14th, it is charged to form the first government of independent Tunisia in which it also takes charges the wallets with them with the foreign affairs and defense. After having been Prime Minister of Rolls Bey, it decides to évincer the sovereign and to proclaim the République the July 25th 1957. It is indicated by it president before being largely elected the November 8th 1959 (being the only candidate to be presented).

The February 8th 1958, the French Army bombards the frontier village of Sakiet Sidi Youssef and makes 72 dead and several casualties. The evening even, Bourguiba announces the “battle of the evacuation” of Bizerte: he proclaims, the 12, the prohibition of the entry of the port to all Warship French and, the 14, makes adopt by the National Assembly a law abrogeant the Convention of 1942 which stipulated that “Bizerte did not form part of the Tunisian territory and was a French port. ” Thanks to the diplomatic pressure, it obtains France the evacuation of the Tunisian territory and the concentration of its army on the basis of Bizerte. Three years later, following the loophole Crisis of Bizerte, the negotiations lead, the October 15th 1963, with the evacuation of the base.

During the promulgation of the news constitution, on June 1st 1959, Bourguiba evokes in a premonitory way the time of the caliphs:

All depended on the personal attitudes and morals qualities of the persons in charge. The only limits to be able to them rose from the regulations of the religion. That for competence. For the duration, they were invested with life. Only death put an end to their mandate. They could age, become unable to assume the capacity and to fall under the cut from an entourage from courtiers and creatures. It was the dead end, without any means of leaving there. The quarry was organized.

Once the institutions in place, he undertakes to remove the country from all the after-effects of the colonial period. The reforms follow one another to set up a modern State, to complete the national Souveraineté and to modernize the company through the propagation of teaching and the promulgation of the Code of the personal status. Although the Islam remains the religion of State (the president must be of Islamic religion), the capacity of the religious leaders is largely reduced. The women reach a new statute in the Arab world, exceeding even that of the Frenchwomen in certain fields. The Polygamie is prohibited, the authorized Divorce and the legalized Avortement. The country is divided of 14 governorships equipped with a modern administration. To counter-current of its neighbors and homologous Arab, the priority is given to education and health with the detriment of the armament. It sets up a modern teaching and names the writer Mahmoud Messaadi at the post of minister of state education. This one puts an end to the double course Koranic and occidentalized teaching . The school becomes public and free. Bourguiba also abolishes the double circuit of justice, puts an end to the influence of the monks on the magistrature and founds courses civil. In February 1961, it invites its fellow-citizens not to observe the Jeûne Ramadan in order to better face and fight the Sous-développement. In March 1964, in full Ramadan, it inserts the nail while drinking openly, on television, glass of juice of orange in full day.

The December 20th 1962, the government announces the discovery of a plot aiming at assassinating Bourguiba and organized by soldiers and some civilians close to Ben Youssef. All is discovered when one of the officers, taken remorse, will find Bahi Ladgham, lieutenant de Bourguiba, to denounce the conspiracy and to deliver its accomplices. He explains why tanks were to leave the barracks of El Aouina and to invest the presidential palace of Carthage. In the number of entreated appear the nephew of Mahmoud Materi and clean the Aide-de-camp of the president. At the time of the lawsuit, one of the marked warrant officers states not to forgive not in Bourguiba “to have sacrificed them in the battle of Bizerte. ” Condemned to died by the military Tribunal, 11 of the culprits are hung. To that the prohibition of the Tunisian Communist party is added and the review the Platform of progress near to this party.

Experiment collectivist

Ahmed Ben Salah, rising star of the government and in favor of a socialist line , is gradually protected from the attacks of the ministers tunisois by Bourguiba which gives its support to him: “I am personally responsible for the plan which I cover with my authority. From now on, the plan will be the work of the party. ” Ben Salah is thus co-opted, the November 17th 1961, at the political office in spite of his failure with the elections of the central committee at the time of the congress of Sousse (1959). The remarriage of Bourguiba, the April 12th 1962, with Wassila Ben Ammar is an occasion missed for Tunisois limiting the invasion of Ben Salah. Because, the February 6th 1963, Bourguiba proclaims that the battle against the underdevelopment is “a fight for the dignity of the man and the glory of the fatherland Under these conditions, the restriction of freedoms and the privileges of the property is essential when it is advisable to make a more productive and more profitable use of it for the community.

It attacks the commercial sector then: all the traditional circuits are broken and replaced by a network centralized of offices of State and co-operative. It particularly aims the trade ensured by the Djerbiens in which Ben Salah sees a preserving caste. The April 28th 1964, Bourguiba requires opening of negotiations on the arable lands held by the foreigners. In answer, the May 2nd, France notifies the suspension of its financial aid. Consequently, the May 12th, the president promulgates the Nationalization grounds. These last, become fields of the State, count among best country. The problem is that the peasants renâclent to be integrated into such a system. ” Thus, the first incidents occur the December 15th with Me saken: manifest population against the obligation for 147 small farmers to adhere to the new co-operatives fruit trees which would replace theirs: 80000 feet of olive-trees. One carries out then tens of arrests and the dissolution of the cells of the party which supported the farmers.

During this period, Bourguiba is distinguished from its Arab counterparts as regards foreign politics. Twenty years before the Egyptian president Anouar el-Sadate, it recommends the standardization of the relationship with Israel. At the time of a round to the the Middle East, facing Gamal Abdel Nasser, he recalls in a speech made to Jericho the March 3rd 1965 that “the policy of the whole or nothing had carried out in Palestine that to the defeat. ” He consequently proposes with UNO the creation of a federation between the Arab States of the area and Israel. In May of the same year, comforted by the support of sound Public opinion, he does not hesitate to break with the Arab League.

The March 14th 1967, Bourguiba is victim of a heart attack. Everyone then takes conscience that it can disappear and, as from this day, will think of the succession. The June 5th, the release of the Guerre the Six Day old causes riots in Tunis: the American arts center, the Large synagog and of the stores of the avenue of London are plundered and set fire to. The January 25th 1969, summoned to yield to the co-operative all its grounds and its orchards, the population of Ouardanine revolts and tries to be opposed to the tractors. The police force opens fire and makes two dead and of tens of casualties. A little everywhere, other incidents burst for the same reasons: the refusal of authoritative collectivization. The August 3rd, Ben Salah presents to Bourguiba a project of bearing Order in Council generalization of the co-operative system in the Agriculture but Bourguiba, on the council of certain ministers, refuses to initial it. The following day, he announces:

One manages from there to pose the problem of the limits of the co-operative system. It is valid beyond until a certain degree whose balance is broken.

The September 8th, an official statement means in Ben Salah his dismissal. The June 8th 1970, Bourguiba declares with the Tunisian people:

Constitutionally the first and single responsible, it is me, Habib Bourguiba. Because I am man, therefore error prone, I was mistaken, I say it in all modesty. I request forgiveness from the people and especially with the militants who suffered I know that they are convinced of my bona fide but I was deceived by a man who handled the lie with a diabolic address.

The August 16th, making a speech with Monastir, it denounces “a vast plot which aimed to the introduction of the fascisation by the revolutionary way. The socialist page being turned, the government is shown in hand by the liberal Hédi Nouira. In January 1971, before leaving to be made look after with the the United States, Bourguiba signs a Décret delegating its prerogatives to Nouira, which consolidates the alliance between Achour and Nouira which is then opposed to the Minister of Interior Department Ahmed Mestiri. With the congress of Monastir which opens the June 19th, Bourguiba, sunken after six months of care abroad, indicates three successive dolphins: “It is with confidence that I foresee the day when, my passage in this world coming to a end, Nouira will succeed me just like later Mestiri and Masmoudi. ” But bases adopt an orientation which the president does not seem to like. After an attempt at takeover of the party by Mestiri, Bourguiba suspends it, like several of its allies, and declares closed work of the central committee: “It is not less obvious than, as long as I will be of this world, I will be maintained with the report heading. ” Bourguiba, in a declaration with the Weekly Egyptian El Moussaouar (September 20th), specifies its thought:

The creation of the United States of North Africa, between Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, the Morocco and the Mauritania, would be made by stages, slowly and prudently, and would take all the time that it would be necessary: 10 years or 100 years the capital of this federation should be Kairouan, capital spiritual of the Moslems since centuries and which would thus symbolize the return to the last glory of the Islamic world.

In January 1974, Bourguiba meets the Libyan leader Mouammar Kadhafi with Jerba. This last presses the president to create a Union tuniso-Libyan woman. At the conclusion of their maintenance, the Tunisian Minister for the foreign affairs Mohamed Masmoudi reads a Joint Declaration: “The two countries will form only one republic, the Arab Republic Islamic, equipped with only one constitution, only one flag, only one president, only one army and the same executive bodies, legislature and legal. A Référendum will be organized the January 18th 1974. ” With the airport, Bourguiba declares with the journalists:

This day will have been historical, devoting one half-century of fight marked by the constitution of the Islamic Arab Republic, which has to have a considerable weight, have regard with the experiments, the executives and the richnesses it has. We express the hope to see Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco to join to Libya and Tunisia We decided to organize a referendum as soon as possible, in theory on January 18th, 1974. However, if the procedure, as for the referendum, requires a time, this one could take place on March 20th, celebrates independence It is what I wanted to proclaim with all the people of North Africa. We form the wish to see the people of the Machrek following our example to form a powerful and solid community.

However, vis-a-vis the oppositions which are done day as well within the mode as abroad, Bourguiba is constrained to go into reverse and to give up the project by pretexting the unconstitutionality of the referendum. It is in this context that the new congress of the PSD, convened with Monastir the September 12th, decides to amend the constitution in order to institute the presidency with life for the benefit of Bourguiba which receives this title on behalf of the National Assembly the March 18th 1975. In April 1976, a constitutional reform confirms the Prime Minister like his constitutional successor. During the autumn, Bourguiba is struck by a news depression, badly which has periodically affected it for 5 years. Locked up with the presidential palace of Carthage, it does not receive almost anybody any more.

Out of economic material, the State still directs nearly 80% of the economic activity of the country, which implies it in the majority of the social conflicts. Indeed, the companies are the place of a permanent conflict between the trade-union cell of the UGTT and the professional cell of the PSD.

In 1978, Bourguiba is constrained to condemn the Camp David agreements under the pressure of its partners, which, n the other hand, will be worth in Tunisia to accommodate the seat of the Arab League then that of PLO.

Succession of the crises

Though she knows, during the Années 1970, one period of economic revival thanks to the adoption of a policy of liberalization of the economy, Tunisia is not with the shelter of the political, social or economic convulsions which develop particularly in the middle of the Années 1980. The clientelism becomes extensive until choking more and more economic development and social country. The situation becomes all the more complex as the advanced age of Bourguiba, the aggravation of its health condition and its incapacity to manage the businesses of the State, poke covetousnesses of all those which, around him, between-tear for the succession. The country engages thus in a political crisis and social choking and made even more serious by degradation of the economic situation which is perceptible through the paralysis of the wheels of State, sharpening the feeling of concern, despair and loss of confidence.

The January 26th 1978 intervenes what one will call the Black Thursday . Following a call to the general strike of the UGTT, thousands of demonstrators, young people come from the periphery of Tunis, converge towards the médina, the commercial streets of the downtown area and the residential districts of the View-point and Mutuelleville. They draw up barricades, break windows and put fire at administrative buildings. At midday, Bourguiba signs the order with the armed to intervene. One even counts finally tens of the hundreds of died according to the sources. The writer Mohsen Toumi advances: “Our own estimates, at the time, recut by those of other investigators, will lead to 200 dead at least and: 1000 wounded. ” In the afternoon, Bourguiba issues the state of emergency and a Couvre-feu which lasts nearly three months. Abdelwahab Meddeb, another Tunisian writer, concludes: “One is astonished to discover that the carnage of January 26th, 1978 presents a repressive scenography resembling to mistake there with that which spread a certain April 9th, 1938. The event, which confirmed the entry of Néo-Destour in the history, on April 9th, 1938, is projected on the event which is a prelude to at its exit of the history, on January 26th, 1978 In both cases, a political process escaped the authority of the moment. Growing louder and louder, it was necessary to break the dash of it. ” In this climate of apparent unit, the congress proceeds in ambiguity because the ditch still widened between the president and the falcons rejecting the opening and the Multipartisme in the name of the national unit. In this climate, the congress votes a resolution of exclusion of the PSD against Achour, general secretary of the UGTT, and several ministers outgoing. The falcons then try to impose Nouira by making it elect general secretary of the party. After intervention of Bourguiba, these decisions are not published and will be announced only once with the national radio. ” This opening fails however because of the electoral confrontation interns in the capital, at the time of the legislative elections, and of the skepticism of the new Prime Minister Mohamed Mzali. Blow, the fight for the succession is accentuated. In this context, Wassila Bourguiba declares in Jeune Afrique (February 28th 1982): “With the constitution such as it is, continuity is artificial and the risk of a popular rejection is not excluded. The Tunisian people respect Bourguiba but true continuity will be assured when the work of Bourguiba is continued democratically by an elected president. ” Habib Achour entrusts to the same newspaper (August 11th): “I am for the revision of the constitution so that all the candidates who wish it can present themselves freely. Jeune Afrique of the January 18th advances, according to its calculation carried out in the hospitals, the figure of 143 died and a thousand of arrests. ” This dramatic turn of events raises the enthusiasm of the country. Paul Balta written in Le Monde of the January 10th: “The inhabitants of the red belts of Tunis and the big cities, often below the poverty line, which join in their revolt the disinherited populations of the village, expressed their anger more violently and in greater number than on January 26th, 1978. ” However, the Mzali Prime Minister makes the vacuum around Bourguiba. In July 1985, Allala Laouiti, faithful companion of the president, is far away from the presidential palace just like Bourguiba Jr., adviser with the presidency, which is dismissed by his/her father the January 7th 1986. To try to solve the economic crisis which worsens, Bourguiba replaces Mzali and indicates, the July 8th, Rachid Sfar at the post of Prime Minister with for mission of implementing a plan of structural adjustment. These successive crises support the rise of Islamism and feed the Paranoïa of the president who makes sure finally the support of the general Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali who is named Minister of Interior Department then promoted Prime Minister in October 1987. Started in an atmosphere of liberalism and laicization of the Tunisian company, the reign of Bourguiba is completed in a twilight atmosphere supplied with the economic crisis and financial.

Dismissal

In the night of the November 6th 1987, a group of seven Tunisian doctors sign a medical report/ratio which certifies the mental incapacity of the president. Ben Ali deposits it while being based on article 57 of the constitution and takes in hand the country. In their book Our friend Ben Ali , the journalists Nicolas Beautiful and Jean-Pierre Tuquoi tell in these terms the takeover per Ben Ali:

Seven doctors whose two soldiers are convened in middle of the night, not with the bedside of the Bourguiba patient, but with the ministry for the interior. Among them the current doctor of the president is, the cardiologist and general Mohamed Gueddiche. Ben Ali summons the representatives of faculty to establish a medical opinion of incapacity of the president. “I have not seen Bourguiba for two years” protests one of the doctors. “That does not do anything! Sign! ” section the general Ben Ali.

In its declaration of the next morning, this last pays homage to the “enormous sacrifices” authorized by Bourguiba, in company of valorous men, with the service of the release of Tunisia and of its development. Elected official chair in 1989, it will continue the policy of Bourguiba of which it positions like the spiritual son, thus filling the wishes of Bourguiba which wishes “to control after its death. ”

According to several sources, the Italian secret services would have played a big role in the fall of Bourguiba. In a maintenance with Repubblica of the October 11th 1999, the Admiral Fulvio Martini (former director of SISMI) confirms this assumption: “All started with the visit in 1984 in Algérie of the president of the Italian Council Bettino Craxi” explains it. “The Algerians, anxious of the increasing destabilization in Tunisia, were then ready to intervene” in this country because of the threats related to their strategic interests. Thus, the Algerian armed would have been ready to invade the part of the Tunisian territory where the pipeline forwards which leads the Algerian Natural gas until in Sicily. “In 1985, Mr. Craxi required of me to go to Algeria to meet there the secret services the objective was to avoid an Algerian blow of head” according to Martini. “As from this moment a long operation of foreign politics started in which the secret services had an extremely important role. With the end, we estimated that the general Ben Ali was the man able to guarantee, better than Bourguiba, stability in Tunisia” adds it. “We proposed this solution with the Algerians who spoke to the Libyans about it. I went to speak to the French the chief about it about the secret services about the time, the general Rene Imbot, treated me with arrogance and said to me that we other Italians, we should not mix us with Tunisia, that it was about the French empire” affirms Martini. It was thus a question of organizing a coup d'etat, most invisible possible, and thus the idea of a “medical putsch” would have taken form. Italy would have guaranteed the rallying of the Prime Minister Ben Ali and this choice would have met the approval of the Algerians as well as Libyans. “It is true, Italy replaced Bourguiba by Ben Ali”, concludes Martini whereas Repubblica had quoted, the October 10th 1999, an exposed report/ratio the October 6th by Martini before an Italian parliamentary commission. For its part, Craxi contradicts, on October 10th, 1999, a participation of the Italian secret services in the accession in the capacity of Ben Ali. “There is no operation nor Italian interference in the events which carried president Ben Ali to the capacity in 1987” affirms it at the office of the AFP in Tunis. According to Le Monde , these revelations of Martini however would not have convinced the specialists because Craxi was a friend of Bourguiba.

End-of-life

In order to avoid its recovery by opponents, Bourguiba is evacuated presidential palace of Carthage a few days later for Mornag, close to Tunis, where it is assigned with residence before being transferred the October 22nd 1988 to Monastir where it lives with the support of a medical team. He says himself officially well treated by the new capacity. Suffering from various health issues, whose disorders of elocution and attention, Bourguiba knows serious health issues at the end of the Années 1990. It receives sometimes some foreign visitors and president Ben Ali. The March 5th 2000, Bourguiba is hospitalized in urgency with the military hospital of Tunis following a pneumopathy. Its state being considered to be critical, it undergoes a pleural puncture with the intensive care. Its health being improved, it leaves the hospital the March 13rd to regain its residence. It dies there on April 6th with 9:50 at 96 years the official age. President Ben Ali decides seven days a national mourning whereas Algeria issues a three days mourning. The Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika recognizes “one of the most outstanding personalities of the Maghreb of the 20th century whose Africa and world can be enorgueillir” and the general secretary of UNO, Kofi Annan, pays homage to “the man of peace” and to “the architect of the Organization of African Unity. ”

With 17:00, wrapped like the tradition in a white shroud wants it, its skin is carried to end of arm by members of Chabiba, youth organization of the RCD, recognizable with their red tunics. She is deposited in the middle of the court of the family home, is covered with the national flag and is surrounded members of Chabiba. His/her son Habib Jr., his Hajer adopted girl, his daughter-in-law and his grandson receive the condolences of notable of the city and the governorship. Bourguiba is buried the following day afternoon in its mausoleum. After a short ceremony with the Mosque Bourguiba, its skin is transferred onto a mounting of gun covered with the national flag and is drawn by a military vehicle framed from detachments from the Tunisian Armée. Among the invited foreign personalities appear the French presidents Jacques Chirac, Algerian Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Palestinian Yasser Arafat and Egyptian Mohammed Hosni Mubarak. After the ground setting, president Ben Ali pronounces a funeral oration in which he greets the “honest and devoted combat” of Bourguiba for Tunisia. The conditions of funerals are however subjected to the criticism of the international press which point the brevity of the ceremony, the little of foreign guests and the absence of retransmission on television.

Private life

Habib Bourguiba Marie twice:

• In 1925, whereas he studies in Paris, he becomes acquainted with Mathilde Fras who becomes his landlady. She gives him her single son, Habib Bourguiba Jr. which is born in April 1927, and marries it in August of the same year. After the independence of Tunisia, it adopts Tunisian nationality, converts with the Islam and adopts the first name of Moufida. The couple Divorce the July 21st 1961.

• the April 12th 1962, it marries Wassila Ben Ammar, a woman belonging to a family of the Bourgeoisie tunisoise which it has attended for 18 years. It gradually takes an increasingly important political role with the wire of the degradation of the health of her husband, which is worth to him the title of Majda (Worthy). Their divorce, the August 11th 1986, by a simple official statement and without the legal procedure being observed, contributes to accelerate the fall of the mode.

Worship of the personality

The October 7th 1961, in an article of Africa Action , Béchir Ben Yahmed, former Secretary of State to information, writes already:

The personal capacity '' held by men who are presidents of the Republic but is in fact of the monarchs without the title. Bourguiba holds today, in right and in fact, more capacities than did not have the joined together bey and the general resident of it.

Having the obsession of its place in the history, Bourguiba quickly gets busy to translate it in all the possible ways. In Monastir, of which he wants to make a “city-memory”, he is made build as of the Années 1960, a Mausolée of white Marbre where his/her parents then his first Moufida wife are buried. On the large door of Bronze are engraved three titles summarizing its life: “The supreme combatant”, “the builder of new Tunisia” and “the liberator of the woman”. Bourguiba also makes make its Cercueil as of 1976 and prepares the course of its funeral: “As of its death, Bourguiba Jr. was to inform a series of Heads of State, of which it would draw up the list, so that the maximum of them can come. For that, it was advisable to differ two days, after the advertisement of its death, the course of funerals. And especially, because it was necessary to associate with mourning whole Tunisia, its body was to be brought slowly, solemnly, of Carthage with Monastir. Not leaving anything randomly, it had divided the course of 140 kilometers between the two cities, so that each of the 20 governorships is charged to make transport its coffin at an equal distance. ” This scenario will not be finally followed.

In a speech delivered in June 1973 with Geneva, with the conference of ILO, it outlines a definition of its historical role as a founder of modern Tunisia:

Of a dust of individuals, of a magma of tribes, subgroups, all curved under the yoke of resignation and fatalism, I made people of citizens. But I am afraid of what I called the “demon one day of Numides”, this demon which pushes with the disunion, with the internal conflicts, which made us miss our history after the revolt by Jugurtha.

Going in the same direction, he declares the April 12th 1975 (after its designation as life president):

The fact of indicating me with life with the report heading can be only one homage of recognition returned to the eyes of the whole world to a man whose name is identified in Tunisia Oui, I cleaned the country of all the tares which made it ugly, I extirpated of them the bad habits, I released it from the yoke which controlled it My passage to the head of this country will mark it of an indelible print during centuries. After its dismissal, the statues are gradually unbolted. In the night of the 11 to the June 12th 1988, 2 statues are unbolted with Kairouan and Bourguiba the renamed avenue which occurred of November 7th. The equestrian statue of Tunis will be unbolted the October 11th then moved in front of the port of Goulette.

The near total of the towns of Tunisia have a street or Avenue bearing the name of Bourguiba as of the independence of the country. Most famous of them is the Avenue Habib Bourguiba located at Tunis. In 1965, it even obtains, at the time of a voyage in ten countries of Africa, that an avenue bears its name in each crossed capital.

On the initiative of the Town hall of Paris, an esplanade on the quay of Orsay, located more precisely between the avenue Thicket and the avenue of the Maubourg Tower, is inaugurated the April 6th 2004 in the presence of the mayor Bertrand Delanoë, of Habib Bourguiba Jr. and of Moncer Rouissi (Ambassador of Tunisia in France). It should be noted that so streets bear the name from Tunis to Paris and in other French cities, it is the first time that the name of a Tunisian personality is carried by a street or a place to France.

Heritage

Habib Bourguiba led his country to independence then to found the second civil republic of the Arab world (after that of the Lebanon). He then took part in the construction of the State-nation in “tunisifiant” his country. Moreover, before independence, the country was called Régence of Tunis and not Tunisia.

For the former minister Mohamed Charfi, the posterior transformations of the Tunisian company induced by the action of Bourguiba are numerous: urbanization, schooling, passage to another family model and Women's Liberation. He insists thus on the part played, after the great figures of the Tunisian reform which are Kheireddine Pasha and Tahar Haddad, by Bourguiba. “If the underdevelopment is a disease, Bourguiba will have known to make the right diagnosis and to implement the effective remedies. ” However, others call in question the extent of the successes obtained in this battle of the development and the role of only Bourguiba in these evolutions.

Bourguibism

Bourguiba also develops its clean Doctrine which it calls bourguibism but which is connected with the Pragmatisme. It is based on the political and economic realism which is based on the belief that “no field of the terrestrial life must escape the human capacity from the reason. ”

Local alternative of the kemalism, it is made up of the assertion of the Tunisian national identity, built in the fight against the Othomans and the French, of the Libéralisme, a Islam nationalized and controlled and of a total independence with respect to the Arab policies. The policy of the stages constitutes principal dimension of it. Bourguiba believed in this policy (contrary to the “whole or nothing” preached and encouraged by some) of the action according to the real possibilities and not of the aspirations.

The private schools were maintained but subjected to the payment of the State. In 1958, the Arab teaching of the Université Zitouna is unified with the bilingual education system. As of 1956 starts to build the building of higher education (foundations of universities, specialized institutes, etc)

Party-state

Bourguiba, which advanced the maturity of the Tunisian people to conquer independence, did not consider the changing prepared enough with the Démocratie and the Pluralisme and ends up granting the presidency life. For him, “the people were not yet ripe for the democracy” which was eluded in the name of the unit that its project implied. Consequently, once thrown the bases of a modern Tunisian State, Bourguiba was let little by little “choir in a paternalist authoritarianism), Tahar Ben Ammar (signatory of the protocol of independence) or Ahmed Mestiri (representative of a liberal line). Mahmoud Materi, which occupied the first the presidency of Néo-Destour, was defamed on several occasions and, having lost confidence in Bourguiba, withdrew itself.

However, Bourguiba posed itself the diagnosis of the dangers of the political archaism which watched for the country. The June 8th 1970, after having noted that “the experiment '' that the concentration of the capacity between the hands of only one, however devoted, involves risks”, it described the broad outlines of the institutional reform which it then considered. This one will carry, it had announced, on “amendments '' will make the government responsible in front of the president for the Republic, but also in front of the National Assembly which is resulting from the popular vote. Thus, it will be permissible at this assembly to dislocate a minister or the government by an unfavourable vote. Other modifications of the constitution will reduce the responsibilities which are assumed up to now by the president of the Republic and him only. After fifteen working years of the capacity, it is time to revise the constitution to establish a certain collaboration between the Head of the State, the National Assembly and the people. ” But the spirit of this reform not having respected these engagements, only the spirit of article 39 (instituting the presidency with life) was going to prevail.

The end of its reign was thus marked by a war of succession, the weakening of the left and the irruption of the islamist movement and the patrimonialism.

Foreign policy

Lastly, in the field of the foreign relations, Jean Lacouture indicates that the relation between Bourguiba and France should not make forget that it also maintained the reports/ratios, even problematic, with the East. Lacouture testifies thus to the anger of Bourguiba seeing itself proposing in 1955 a formula of “Co-sovereignty”