Beji Caid Essebsi

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Beji Caid Essebsi (2015) signature

Beji Caid Essebsi ( Arabic الباجي قائد السبسي al-Badschi Qa'id as-Sabsi , DMG al-Bāǧī Qāʾid as-Sabsī , French Béji Caïd Essebsi ; * November 29, 1926 in Sidi Bou Saïd ; † July 25, 2019 in Tunis ) was a Tunisian politician and President of the Tunisian Republic from December 31, 2014 until his death. The lawyer served since Tunisia gained its independence from France in 1956 for many years in various government posts, including as interior, defense and foreign ministers. After the overthrow of the autocrat Ben Ali , he wasthe country'sinterim prime minister from February 27 to December 24, 2011. Inthe parliamentary elections in October 2014, he led the secular party Nidaa Tounes , which he founded in 2012 , to become the strongest force in the new Tunisian parliament .

Family and education

With his graduating class at the Sadiki College (circle on the right)

Essebsi came from a respected family that belonged to the upper class of farmers and landowners on the Tunisian coast in the time of the Beys , as his nickname Kaid indicates (see also Sebsi for the family name ). His mother, Habiba Ben Jafaar, came from a similarly important family; she was related to milk with the first chairman of the Neo Destur party , Mahmoud El Materi. His brother Salaheddine (born 1933) is a well-known lawyer. The family moved to Hammam-Lif , where Beji Caid Essebsi spent most of his childhood and later life. He attended the College Sadiki in Tunis , which trained the future elite of the country in bilingual classes according to the values ​​of the Enlightenment and modernity . He then began studying law in Paris, which he graduated with a licentiate in 1950 . With his wife Chadlia Saida geb. Farhat (born August 1, 1936), whom he married in 1958, has two sons (including the politician Hafedh ) and two daughters.

Political career under Bourguiba and Ben Ali (until 1994)

As Minister of Defense
With Habib Bourguiba

In 1941 Essebsi became a member of the youth organization of the secular Neo-Destur party of the later founder of the Republic Habib Bourguiba , which was fighting for independence from France . In 1942 he became a member of this party. During his studies in Paris, he was one of the leaders of the students advocating independence. He returned to Tunisia in July 1952, was admitted to the bar, and on October 3 of that year he joined the office of the neo-Destur activist Fathi Zouhir . Essebsi began his legal work by representing the politically accused; later he was admitted to the Court of Cassation.

With Dag Hammarskjöld (1961)

Like many politically active lawyers, he began his political career with independence in March 1956, when he became an advisor to the staff of Prime Minister and later President Habib Bourguiba. Under him he held various political positions, including as head of the regional administration and the security service, when he had to cope with the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in 1962. Essebsi served in the Tunisian government from 1965 to 1969 as interior minister, 1969/70 as defense minister and 1981 to 1986 as foreign minister.

He was part of the autocratic political system, but took a position for those who were reformist; Wolfgang Günter Lerch stated that Essebsi had always been seen as a liberal voice, and in retrospect he described himself as “always free and independent”: Ambassador of Tunisia in Paris since 1970, he resigned this office at the end of 1971 and publicly justified his retirement in June 1972 a contribution to the French newspaper Le Monde to challenge Bourguiba's government. He returned to Tunis and was expelled from the Neo Destur party in 1974 after he had been accepted into the Central Committee in 1964 and into the Politburo of the now socialist party in 1965 . Essebsi founded the French-language newspaper "Démocratie" in 1976, which brought the people of the authoritarian country closer to a pluralistic political culture, and over the next few years was involved in the Tunisian Human Rights League . Whether Essebsi - as he stated - campaigned for the regime-critical weekly Errai , which appeared in 1978 , is, however, controversial.

After the assurance of (albeit formal) party pluralism and freedom of the press, Essebsi returned to the Neo-Destur party in 1980 and became Minister of State. In 1981 he became foreign minister in the Mzali government and remained so until September 1986. He had international difficulties to cope with when the PLO under its leader Yasser Arafat fled to Tunisia in 1982 after the beginning of the Lebanon War , where it moved its headquarters and had Israel bombed it in 1985 ( Operation Wooden Leg ). Essebsi helped ensure that Israel's conduct was unanimously condemned by the UN Security Council - the only time the United States abstained from such an anti-Israel resolution, which Tunisia recognized as its great success. Also because the Arab League under its Tunisian General Secretary Chedli Klibi relocated its seat to Tunis because of Anwar el-Sadat's policies that were friendly to Israel , his foreign policy course gained weight. From 1981 Essebsi was again a member of the Politburo of the ruling party and in 1986 became Tunisia's ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany.

After the non-violent overthrow of Bourguiba in a coup at the end of 1987, Essebsi joined the party of the new President Ben Ali, which, as a new formation of the Neo-Destur and, like it until then, dominated Tunisian politics almost without restriction. Under Ben Ali, Essebsi was President of the Chamber of Deputies in 1990/91 , but was never a member of Ben Ali's “power clique”. He did not stand for his parliamentary seat in the 1994 election and withdrew from Tunisian politics because he had the feeling that he could not bring about any major changes in the political system, as he said in 2005. From then on he practiced as a lawyer again, mainly in arbitration proceedings .

Prime Minister after the Tunisian Revolution (2011)

Essebsi Cabinet (2011)
"Man of the Year" in Tunivisions magazine (January 2012)

Only after the fall of Ben Ali and the revolution in Tunisia in 2010/2011 did the 84-year-old return to the public. He was appointed by the interim President Fouad Mebazaa as the first prime minister without direct continuity to the old regime on February 27, 2011 , after his predecessor Mohamed Ghannouchi resigned from his office following persistent protests and sit-ins. On March 7, 2011, Essebsi presented the Essebsi cabinet , which consisted mainly of technocrats and whose members had to undertake not to run in the democratic elections announced for July 2011 (and held at the end of the year). His government managed to calm the disorderly revolutionary situation and organize elections. On December 24, 2011, he was of Hamadi Jebali replaced, which after the first democratic elections in Tunisia for the Constituent Assembly was appointed. Essebsi was the first Prime Minister in the Arab world to hand over power to a democratically legitimized and Islamist-dominated government.

Leader of Nidaa Tounes (2012-2014)

In April 2012 founded the party Essebsi Nidaa Tounes (dt. Call of Tunisia ), the heterogeneous collection movement of the secular opposition to the Islamic party Ennahda was born, according to many observers of its popularity and held together. The party emerged victorious from the 2014 parliamentary election with a relative majority .

One of the sons, Hafedh, holds a leading position in the party and faces allegations of nepotism and lack of commitment, but was appointed one of the party’s three deputy chairmen in May 2015. Hafedh's position within the party led to its split on November 9, 2015. Critics accused the Essebsi family of increasing authoritarian character and building a dynasty .

President of Tunisia (2014-2019)

With the American Secretary of State John Kerry (May 2015)

Essebsi ran as a candidate in the presidential election in Tunisia in 2014 and was considered a favorite - especially after the success in the parliamentary election. In the election campaign, Essebsi styled himself as the second Bourguiba by imitating the appearance of the Tunisian founding father, right down to the choice of sunglasses, the accent in speeches and the way of walking. He was supported by many media outlets; the head of the private television station Nessma TV , Nabil Karoui, accompanied Essebsi to election campaign events. In the first ballot on November 23, he received the most votes with 39 percent and entered the runoff election on December 21, 2014, in which he defeated incumbent Moncef Marzouki (44.32 percent) with 55.68 percentage points . He dedicated his victory to the "martyrs" of the Tunisian revolution and called on all political forces to work together and look ahead to counter fears that he was seeking a return to authoritarianism. After the election, Essebsi announced that he would resign from the leadership of the Nidaa Tounes party in order to be able to act as president in a non-partisan way, as stipulated in Article 76 of the Tunisian constitution of 2014 . The handover and swearing-in took place on December 31, 2014. Essebsi stated three political goals: strengthening the economy, fighting terrorism and consolidating democracy.

On January 5, he instructed the independent technocrat Habib Essid , who had been Interior Minister in Essebsi's transitional government in 2011, to form the next government. The Essid cabinet began its work on February 6, 2015 , supported by a large majority of almost all parties in the People's Representatives' Assembly . The government united the two largest and antagonistic political currents in the country, the moderate Islamists and the secularists, which was understood as an elite compromise, in particular through Essebsi's agreements with the Islamist leader Rached al-Ghannouchi , and as an inhibition of the democratic process (formation of opposition, transparency, accountability ) has been criticized. Essebsi had agreed in August 2013 with Ghannouchi in Paris secretly to an indemnity after the political stability appeared vulnerable: Two left, secular politicians Tunisia Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi , had been killed, the Egyptian, the Muslim Brotherhood belonging to President Mohamed Morsi was toppled a month earlier .

Essebsi himself was portrayed as a strong man on security issues , particularly after the Islamist attack in Tunis in 2015 ; On a trip to the United States in May 2015, he was assured that his country would be upgraded to a major non-NATO ally in the USA, which means stronger military and financial support. In the process, Essebsi also met business leaders whom he solicited for investment. After 31 previous MPs from Nidaa Tounes left the parliamentary group in the People's Representative Assembly in November 2015 and Nidaa Tounes had fallen back to the second largest group behind the moderate Islamist Ennahda , Prime Minister Essid and his cabinet lost the parliament's confidence in early August 2016. Essebsi then succeeded in nominating a member of the Nidaa Tounes party executive, Youssef Chahed , as the successor candidate, who presented a cabinet of national unity and started work with him at the end of August. Observers explained Chahed's election with the fact that Essebsi wanted to satisfy his quarreling party, and with this maneuver attested him strategic skill and adaptability to a challenging situation in which he had broken the existing political blockade. At the end of his life , Le Monde attributed the result of the pact with the moderate Islamists to the fact that his secular rallying movement was fragmented and there was no prospect of a successor before the parliamentary elections in autumn 2019 . Essebsi's reputation was ultimately damaged by the fact that his son, who had meanwhile moved to the head of Nidaa Tounes , had the prospect of his dynastic successor in the presidency.

Essebsi showed his willingness to influence daily politics by publicly opposing statements by government ministers. In autumn 2015, he put an end to the liberalization plans of Justice Minister Mohamed Salah Ben Aïssa with the reply that Tunisia would not lift the criminalization of homosexuality. In 2016 he contradicted a joint statement made by Interior Minister Hédi Majdoub and the Gulf Cooperation Council that Hezbollah was a terrorist organization; As part of the Lebanese government, this belongs to the “national resistance” against the “ Zionist occupation” and is therefore fully supported by Tunisia against Israel . In mid-2017, Essebsi declared that he was committed to ensuring that Tunisian women marry non-Muslims and inherit in equal parts as men, which they have not been allowed to do so far - according to Islamic law. This follows from the equality of the sexes, which is laid down in the Constitution of 2014; Women are the future of the country. Essebsi's advance caused rejection in the Islamic world, especially among religious scholars; he received death threats from several states.

Since the resignation of Robert Mugabe in November 2017, Essebsi has been the oldest head of state after Queen Elizabeth II . Essebsi announced on April 6, 2019 that he would not run for president in the upcoming presidential election in November after being asked to run again from his party. He declared it was youth time; his party should resolve the conflict with Prime Minister Chahed. A few days earlier, Algeria's President Bouteflika - 82 years old - announced his resignation after mass protests. Essebsi became seriously ill in June and had several hospital stays. On July 25, 2019, he died in a military hospital in Tunis after another fit of weakness. He left an unclear political situation, especially since he left a short-term electoral law change passed by parliament, which would have excluded several promising presidential candidates from running, without making a copy. Essebsi's interim successor took over the President of the People's Representative Assembly, Mohamed Ennaceur , from the Essebsis Party , for a minimum of 45 and a maximum of 90 days , in accordance with Article 84 of the Constitution of the Republic of Tunisia .

Fonts

In 2009 Essebsi published a well-known book about the first President of the Republic of Tunisia and his ambivalent relationship with him, "Habib Bourguiba: Le Bon Grain et L'ivraie" (Eng .: Habib Bourguiba: Chaff and Wheat), which broke sales records. In December 2016, the French journalist Arlette Chabot published the book Tunisie. La démocratie en terre d'Islam (“Tunisia - Democracy on Islamic Ground”), which contains talks with Essebsi and an introduction by him. It is aimed primarily at a foreign audience and aims to bring them closer to the history and special position of Tunisia among the Arab states and to show that democracy is compatible with Islam.

literature

Web links

Commons : Beji Caid Essebsi  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Günter Lerch : Béji “Caïd” Essebsi. Tunisian crossover. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 3, 2011.
  2. ↑ Erich Alauzen: Qui est Beji Caïd Essebsi, la figure de l'opposition tunisienne? ( Memento of December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Scribium.com , August 26, 2012.
  3. ↑ Essebsi (Slahiddin). In: Who's Who in the Arab World 2007–2008. Saur, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-598-07735-1 , p. 290.
  4. ↑ Eric Gobe: Les avocats en Tunisie de la colonization à la révolution (1883–2011). IRMC, 2013, p. 101 , footnote 61; Essebsi retrouve ses racines à Hammam-Lif! In: Espace Manager , October 20, 2014.
  5. ↑ a b Béji Caïd Essebsi: My Three Goals as Tunisia's President. In: The Washington Post , December 26, 2014.
  6. ^ Les premières declarations de la Première Dame de Tunisie, Chadlia Saïda Caïd Essebsi. In: Baya.tn , January 8, 2015; Annuaire des personnalités. Béji Caïd Essebsi. In: Leaders.com.tn .
  7. ↑ a b c d Ridha Kéfi: Béji Caïd Essebsi. In: Jeune Afrique , March 15, 2005.
  8. ↑ a b c d Essebsi (Begi, Qaid). In: Who's Who in the Arab World 2007–2008. Saur, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-598-07735-1 , p. 290.
  9. ↑ a b Éric Gobe: Les avocats en Tunisie de la colonization à la révolution (1883-2011). Édition Karthala et IRMC, Tunis 2013, ISBN 978-2-8111-1056-7 , p. 101 .
  10. ↑ a b c Annuaire des personnalités. Béji Caïd Essebsi. In: Leaders.com.tn .
  11. ↑ a b c d Noureddine Baltayeb: The Puzzling Return of Essebsi in Post-Revolution Tunisia. ( Memento from December 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Al-Akhbar , December 23, 2014.
  12. ↑ a b Reiner Wandler: The revolution eats its grandpa. New government in Tunisia. In: Die Tageszeitung , February 28, 2011.
  13. ↑ On the individual stations, despite the polemical style, helpful because of the great precision Mounir Ben Aicha: Etude: Béji Caïd Essebsi, un vieillard tunisien, ancien dictateur, encore assoiffé de pouvoir. In: Nawaat.org , January 3, 2013.
  14. ↑ The article is documented in: Béji Caïd Essebsi: Les raisons d'un départ. In: Leaders.com.tn , November 17, 2014.
  15. ↑ Zainab Ben Ammar: Hassib Ben Ammar et le journal "Er-rai" (1978-1987). In: Kapitalis.com , May 19, 2012.
  16. ^ A b Thomas Schmid : Tunisia: The Jasmine Revolution. In: Frank Nordhausen , Thomas Schmid (ed.): The Arab Revolution. 2nd, updated and expanded edition. Ch. Links, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86153-640-6 , pp. 17–38, here p. 30.
  17. ^ New Tunisia PM Appointed. In: Al Jazeera , February 28, 2011.
  18. ↑ New cabinet appointed in Tunisia. In: ORF.at , March 7, 2011.
  19. ↑ See for example Tunisia's Election: The Secularist Comeback. In: The Economist , October 28, 2014.
  20. ↑ Alex Féraud: Tunisie: Un Essebsi peut en cacher un autre. In: Jeune Afrique , August 4, 2014.
  21. ^ Nida Tounes: Baccouche, Essebsi et Elloumi vices président, Marzouk secrétaire général. In: EspaceManager.com , May 13, 2015.
  22. ^ A b Carlotta Gall, Farah Samti: Revolt in Governing Party Shakes Tunisian Politics. In: The New York Times , January 11, 2016.
  23. ^ Elections in Tunisia: Commission declares secular party the winner. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 30, 2014.
  24. ↑ Karem Yehia: How Nidaa Tounes Beat Ennahda in Tunisia's Polls. In: Al-Ahram , October 28, 2014 (English).
  25. ^ Eileen Byrne: Major Political Shift to Come as Tunisia Votes for New President. In: The National , December 20, 2014 (English).
  26. ↑ Les Résultats Préliminaires du Deuxième Tour de la Présidentielle. In: ISIE.tn (Electoral Commission), December 22, 2014 (French). See also El Sebsi declares himself the election winner in Tunisia. In: Zeit Online , December 22, 2014.
  27. ↑ Lara Talverdian: Tunisia's New Beginning. In: Atlantic Council , December 23, 2014 (English).
  28. ^ Tunisian Secular Leader Essebsi Sworn In As New President. In: Reuters , December 31, 2014 (English).
  29. ^ Habib Essid nominated as Tunisian prime minister. In: The Guardian , January 5, 2015.
  30. ↑ Anouar Boukhars: The fragility of elite settlements in Tunisia. In: African Security Review. Volume 26, 2017, No. 3, pp. 257-270, doi : 10.1080 / 10246029.2017.1294093 (PDF) .
  31. ^ Frédéric Baubin: Tunisie: le président Essebsi, symbols des ambivalences de la révolution, est mort. In: Le Monde , July 25, 2019 (French).
  32. ↑ Christoph Ehrhardt: Tunisia after the attack, longing for the strong man. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 25, 2015.
  33. ^ Barack Obama, Beji Caid Essebsi: Helping Tunisia Realize Its Democratic Promise. In: The Washington Post , May 20, 2015 (English); Remarks by President Obama and President Essebsi of Tunisia after Bilateral Meeting. In: Whitehouse.gov , May 21, 2015 (English); Obama Designates Tunisia as Major Non-NATO Ally. In: Voice of America , May 21, 2015.
  34. ↑ Suzanne Malveaux: President Obama Pledges Aid to Tunisia. In: CNN .com , May 22, 2015 (English).
  35. ^ Frida Dahmani: Tunisie: Béji Caïd Essebsi propose Youssef Chahed pour diriger le prochain government. In: Jeune Afrique , August 2, 2016 (French).
  36. ↑ Salah El-Gharbi: Chahed à la Kasbah: Encore un coup de maître de Béji Caïd Essebsi! In: Kapitalis.com , August 4, 2016 (French).
  37. ^ Frédéric Baubin: Tunisie: le président Essebsi, symbols des ambivalences de la révolution, est mort. In: Le Monde , July 25, 2019 (French).
  38. ↑ Monia Ben Hamadi: Tunisie: Béji Caïd Essebsi s'oppose catégoriquement à la dépénalisation des pratiques homosexuales. In: Huffington Post Maghreb , June 10, 2015 (French).
  39. ^ Pour la Tunisie, "le Hezbollah n'est pas un groupe terroriste", affirme Essebsi. In: L'Orient-Le Jour , March 30, 2016 (French).
  40. ↑ Thimotée Vinchon: Egalité femmes-hommes dans l'héritage. Le pari du président tunisien. In: Liberation , August 17, 2017 (French); It has been a summer of progress for women in the Arab world. In: The Economist , August 24, 2017 (English); Taieb Khouni: Béji Caïd Essebsi aurait reçu des menaces de mort depuis d'autres pays musulmans «pour avoir osé proposer l'égalité» selon FranceInfo. In: Huffington Post Maghreb , November 23, 2017 (French).
  41. ↑ Jade Toussay: Avec Robert Mugabe, qui sont les plus vieux chefs d'Etat de la planète. In: Huffington Post , November 19, 2017 (French).
  42. ^ Tunisia's 92-year-old president will not seek re-election. In: BBC.com , April 6, 2019 (English).
  43. ^ Tunisia President Beji Caid Essebsi has 'severe health crisis'. In: BBC.com , June 27, 2019 (English); Tunisia's President Essebsi should soon be able to leave the hospital. In: Aargauer Zeitung , June 30, 2019.
  44. ↑ Jason Burke: Tunisia's president Beji Caid Essebsi dies aged 92. In: The Guardian , July 25, 2019 (English).
  45. ↑ Le président du Parlement tunisien assure l'intérim après la mort d'Essebsi. In: Le Monde , July 25, 2019 (French). See the German translation of the constitution at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (PDF) .
  46. ↑ Dominique Lagarde: Béji Caïd Essebsi: Bourguiba, "ni despote ... ni démocrate". In: L'Express .fr , July 16, 2009.
  47. ^ “Tunisie: la democratie en terre d'Islam”, Arlette Chabot présente à Tunis son livre d'entretiens avec BCE. In: Directinfo , January 8, 2017 (French); Article on the subject of Huffington Post Maghreb (French).
personal data
SURNAME Essebsi, Beji Caid
ALTERNATIVE NAMES الباجي قائد السبسي (Arabic); Essebsi, Béji Caïd (French)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Tunisian politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Sidi Bou Said
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 2019
Place of death Tunis