Promotion photograph at Sadiki College featuring Caid Essebsi (second row, circled on the right)
Born in 1926, inSidi Bou Said to anelite family originally fromSardinia (Italy), he was the great-grandson of Ismail Caïd Essebsi, aSardinian kidnapped byBarbary corsairs in theBeylik of Tunis along the coasts of the island at the beginning of the nineteenth century, who then became amamluk leader (he was raised with the ruling family after converting toIslam and was later recognized as a free man when he became an important member of the government).[8][9]
Essebsi's first involvement in politics came in 1941, when he joined theNeo Destour youth organization inHammam-Lif.[10][11] He went to France in 1950 to study law inParis.[12] He began his career as a lawyer defending Neo-Destour activists.[12][13] Essebsi later joined Tunisia's leaderHabib Bourguiba as a supporter of the Tunisian separatist movement and later as his adviser following thecountry's independence from France in 1956.[13]
Essebsi, a protégé of Bourguiba, held various posts under Bourguiba from 1957 to 1971,[6] including chief of the regional administration,[14] general director of theSûreté nationale,[12] Interior Minister in 1965,[12] Minister-Delegate to the Prime Minister, Defense Minister in 1969,[12] and then Ambassador to Paris.[13]
On 27 February 2011, in the aftermath of theTunisian Revolution that ousted long-serving leaderBen Ali, Tunisian Prime MinisterMohamed Ghannouchi then resigned following a day of clashes inTunis with five protesters being killed. On the same day, acting PresidentFouad Mebazaa appointed Caïd Essebsi as the new Prime Minister, describing him as "a person with an impeccable political and private life, known for his profound patriotism, his loyalty and his self-sacrifice in serving his country." The mostly young protesters continued taking their discontent to the streets, criticizing the unilateral appointment of Essebsi without further consultation.[16] Essesbi nevertheless has been described as someone who had "remained at a distance from Ben Ali" since his leaving politics in 1991, a move significant for "contribut[ing] to his credibility and acceptance" in the years following the 2011 revolution, the post-Ben Ali era.[17]
On 5 May accusations of the former Interior MinisterFarhat Rajhi that acoup d'etat was being prepared against the possibility of the Islamic partyEnnahda Party winning theConstituent Assembly election in October. This, again, led to several days of fierce anti-Government protests and clashes on the streets.[18] In the interview disseminated onFacebook, Rajhi called Caïd Essebsi a "liar", whose government had been manipulated by the old Ben Ali circles.[19] Caïd Essebsi strongly rejected Rajhi's accusations as "dangerous and irresponsible lies, [aimed at spreading] chaos in the country" and also dismissed him from his post as director of the High Commission for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which he had retained after being dismissed from the office as Interior Minister already on 8 March. Nevertheless, Ennahda's presidentRached Ghannouchi further fueled the suspicions, stating that "Tunisians doubt the credibility of the Transitional Government."[18]
After the elections in October, Caïd Essebsi left office on 24 December 2011 when the new Interim PresidentMoncef Marzouki appointedHamadi Jebali of the Islamist Ennahda, which had become the largest parliamentary group.[20]
Following his departure from office, Caïd Essebsi founded the secularNidaa Tounes party, which won a plurality of the seats in theOctober 2014 parliamentary election.[21] He was also the party's candidate in the country's first free presidential elections, in November 2014.[22]
On 22 December 2014, official election results showed that Essebsi had defeated incumbent PresidentMoncef Marzouki in the second round of voting, receiving 55.68% of the vote.[23] After the polls closed the previous day, Essebsi said on local television that he dedicated his victory to "the martyrs of Tunisia".[24]
Essebsi was sworn in as president on 31 December 2014 at the age of 88, he was the first freely elected president of modern Tunisia. He played a vital role in helping ensure that, more than any other Arab state, the North African country preserved many of the essential gains of theArab spring movement, which began in Tunisia originally.[25] He vowed on the occasion of his swearing-in to "be president of all Tunisian men and women without exclusion" and stressed the importance of "consensus among all parties and social movements".[26]
On 3 August 2016, Essebsi appointedYoussef Chahed as a prime minister as the parliament withdrew confidence fromHabib Essid's government.[27]
In 2017, he called for legal amendments to the inheritance law to ensure equal rights for men and women, and he called for Tunisian women to be able to marry non-Muslims, which he believed to be not in direct conflict withSharia nor with the Tunisian constitution.[28]
In 2018, he proposed a revision of Tunisian electoral law, which he felt contained many shortcomings going against the principles of the 2011 revolution.[29]
On 13 August 2018, he promised also to submit a bill to parliament soon which would aim to give women equal inheritance rights with men, as debate over the controversial topic of inheritance reverberated then throughout the Muslim world.[30]
Not long before his death, concerning the economic crisis of Tunisia (widely believed to be the foremost political problem in the country in the post-revolutionary era), he declared that the year 2018 would be difficult, but that the hope of economic revival was still possible.[31]
In April 2019, Essebsi announced he would not seek a second term inthat year's presidential election, saying it was time to "open the door to the youth."[32]
Beji Caid Essebsi was recognized for his role in reinforcing democratic advances in the face ofeconomic hardship andterrorism.[25]
Essebsi with U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry (19 September 2016 in New York City)
On 27 June 2019, Essebsi was hospitalized at a military hospital in Tunis due to a serious illness.[33] The following day his condition stabilized.[34]
Beji Caid Essebsi on the cover of the magazineTunivisions, January 2012
He was re-admitted to hospital on 24 July 2019, and died the following day, 25 July 2019 (which coincided with the 62nd anniversary ofthe abolition of the Tunisian monarchy), five months before his term was due to end.[35][36] In addition to Tunisia, which declared mourning for seven days, eight other countries announced official mourning periods of three days after the death of Essebsi, namelyLibya,Algeria,Mauritania,Jordan,Palestine,Lebanon,Egypt andCuba. Likewise, theUnited Nations stood for a minute of silence and flew flags for a day after Essebsi's death.
Theelectoral commission subsequently announced that Essebsi's successor would be elected sooner than the original date of 17 November,[2] due to the constitutional provision that in the event of the president's death, a permanent successor must be in office within 90 days.[7] The president of the Assembly of Representatives of the People,Mohamed Ennaceur, served as acting president in the meantime.[37] Ultimately, the election was pushed up to 15 September.[38]
His state funeral took place on 27 July inCarthage in the presence of dignitaries such as:
A procession took place from theCarthage Palace toJellaz Cemetery, where he was buried.Abdullah II (King of Jordan) also came to Tunisia on 29 July to offer condolences to the acting President of Tunisia Mohamed Ennaceur and to the family of President Beji Caid Essebsi.
Essebsi marriedChadlia Saïda Farhat on 8 February 1958.[14] The couple had four children: two daughters, Amel and Salwa, and two sons, Mohamed Hafedh and Khélil.[40]
His wife died on 15 September 2019, aged 83, nearly two months after her husband.[41]
^Mohamed El Aziz Ben Achour,Catégories de la société tunisoise dans la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle, éd. Institut national d'archéologie et d'art, Tunis, 1989(in French)
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