Dossier: Beji Caïd Sebssi biography and career of a political veteran

President Béji Caïd Essebsi, Tunisia’s first elected head of state following pluralistic and democratic elections, and who led the democratic transition after the Jasmine Revolution, which sparked the 2011 Arab Spring, died on Thursday morning in Tunis. He was 92 years old.

His death, in the military hospital in Tunis, was first announced by a press release from the Presidency of the Republic, before being confirmed by the government. No cause was specified. It should be noted that he was admitted to hospital last month, sparking rumors that he had passed away.

In a diplomatic career spanning more than 60 years, Mr. Essebsi was the only Tunisian politician to have held political office in the new democracy, as well as under previous dictatorships.

The Tunisians will have today (Saturday July 27) a last opportunity to pay homage to the memory of their president, and this during the grandiose funeral from the palace of Carthage until his final resting place.

Currently, the President of the Assembly of People’s Representatives, Mohamed Ennaceur, assumes the presidency in accordance with the provisions of the Tunisian Constitution of January 17, 2014.

Journey of a political veteran

An education in the conduct of power and responsibility

Born on November 29, 1926, in Sidi Bou Saïd, a village at the top of a cliff north of Tunis, Essebsi continued his secondary education at Sadiki College.

He then left for France, where he began studying law. Vice-president of the Association of North African Muslim Students and also an active member of the resistance against the French protectorate, within the Neo Destour, he became the close ally of Habib Bourguiba.

After gaining independence in 1956, Bourguiba became Tunisia’s first president and Essebsi was appointed adviser to the president.

The titles follow one another, from head of the regional administration to director general of state security, until July 1965, when he was appointed minister of the interior in place of Taieb Mehiri. Supposed to leave as ambassador to the United States, his departure was canceled, only to become Minister of Defense and Minister of State in the government of Bahri Ladgham.

In 1970, he resigned from his post as Minister of Defense, following differences of opinion with Bourguiba due to the autocratic policy pursued by the regime. 

Ambassador to France from 1970 to 1971, Beji Caïd Essebsi defends democratization within the Destourian Socialist Party (PSD), the party in power, and is excluded. He joined the opposition by joining the Movement of Democratic Socialists (MDS).

After a whole decade, BCE rejoined the government as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1981-1986). One of the most significant events of these six years is undoubtedly his plea to the UN Security Council in favor of international condemnation of the Israeli air raid in 1985 against the headquarters of the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine in Hammam Chott, in the southern suburbs of Tunis. An operation that cost the lives of fifty Palestinians and eighteen Tunisians.

A time-tested experience

After the advent of November 7, 1987, Beji Caïd Essebi briefly chaired the National Assembly from 1990 to 1991, did not join the opposition but retired from politics and devoted himself again to his law firm. . A distancing that saved his image years later, during the democratic uprising and the ousting of Ben Ali.

The understanding in the conflict: the man who knew how to restore the sense of democratic division

In 2011, the interim President of the Republic Fouad Mbazaâ called on him as Prime Minister of a provisional government responsible for preparing the election of a Constituent Assembly with the aim of marking the dawn of a new era. post-revolution and draft a new Constitution.

The Islamist Ennahdha party wins the October elections and forms a “Troika” coalition government, and Béji Caïd Essebsi joins the opposition.

Bourguibism: A political etiology put to the test again

On June 16, 2012, he announced at the Palais des Congrès in Tunis his decision to found his own political party, the movement of Nidaa Tounes. On July 6, 2012, the party officially obtained its authorization. A party in which the politician seeks to bring together different democratic sensitivities working for a modernist social project. His party won 86 seats (ie 39.6% of a total of 217 seats) in the Assembly of People’s Representatives in the legislative elections and itself the presidential election in 2014. He was credited with 55.68% of the votes cast.

His mandate will be marked by his support of the women’s cause. In 2017, Muslim women obtained the right to marry non-Muslims. In 2018, he pledged to introduce a bill to ensure equal inheritance which, however, did not pass the hurdle in parliament, as well as his refusal to initial amendments to the electoral law. which he considered discriminatory.

Critiques

Béji Caïd Essebsi has been criticized by the Truth & Dignity Commission, which was set up after the 2010 revolution to investigate violations committed during the years of dictatorship. The commission implicated him in human rights abuses in 1963, when he was director of national security and faced an attempted military coup against Bourguiba.

The commission’s report said Essebsi oversaw the unfair trials of Bourguiba’s opponents, conducted by judges who were not independent. Slaheddine Caïd Essebsi, his brother, was also cited in the report as being present at the trials as a government-appointed lawyer. Neither man has ever commented on the report’s findings.

Little known facts

Throughout his life, Essebsi remained devoted to Bourguiba, considering him a hero and an “Idol”. He writes, “Habib Bourguiba: the wheat and the chaff”.