The one the Tunisians dubbed "Benavie" is dead. At 83, the former President of the Republic of Tunisia, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, died, announced Thursday, September 19 his lawyer.
Since 2011, the former leader had taken refuge in Jeddah, on the Black Sea coast, in Saudi Arabia, with part of his family, following a popular uprising that inaugurated the Arab Spring. After reigning over Tunisia from 1987 to 2011, the leader had indeed rushed to power on January 14 that year, leaving behind a population in love with change and freedoms and a "Tunisian economic model" down.
In 2018, after several trials of which he was absent, the ousted president was sentenced to a total of more than 200 years imprisonment in absentia for various charges including murder, looting, corruption or torture.
Promising beginnings
Nothing, however, foreshadowed such an end. Born September 3, 1936 in a modest family of eleven children Hammam Sousse, on the northeast coast of the country, Zine el-Abidine taste very young policy by incorporating the Nationalist Party Neo-Destour.
Graduated from the Special Military School at Saint-Cyr, then from the School of Artillery in Châlons-sur-Marne, France, he continued his university studies in the United States. With a degree in electronics engineering in the United States, he returned to Tunisia and held various positions, including in the army and abroad.
In 1984, he was recalled to Tunis, after the riots of hunger, and took the head of the National Security. Member of the Political Bureau of the Socialist Party Destourien (PSD), he then accesses the first steps of power in 1987, as Minister of the Interior in May, and then as Prime Minister in October.
A function that it occupies only six weeks but which opens the way to the supreme power. Indeed, at the same time, the architect of independence, Habib Bourguiba, first head of state of the Republic of Tunisia and president for life, is declared senile and unfit to perform his duties, on the strength of a medical report deposited on November 7th. As a constitutional dauphin, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali succeeds him. Described by some as a "medical coup", this maneuver is seen by others as a "silent revolution" that allows "change".
Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali then took charge of the PSD, which he transformed into a Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) in 1988. He abolished the presidency for life and was elected president, with 99.27% of the votes, 2 April 1989 A score he will beat five years later, with 99.91% of the vote. During these two elections, he is the only candidate. In 2002, he had the Constitution amended by referendum to abolish the limitation of the mandates and to extend the age limit, in order to be able to file a candidacy for the presidency of 2004. That he wins, with 68 years, with "only" 94, 4% of the votes. He is re-elected again in 2009, at 89.62%.
From the economic model to the authoritarian turn
At the beginning of his presidency, Ben Ali is considered a popular head of state, both in Tunisia and abroad. Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali makes economic development a priority, promotes investment, pursues a privatization policy, particularly in the tourism and industrial sectors, which are experiencing a period of strong growth. It also works for social progress, mainly in education - the number of students has increased ten-fold in twenty-five years - and in women's rights.
Faced with the rise of fundamentalism in the 2000s, he launched a violent fight against Islamists. The repression is very tough, endorsed not only by most Tunisian Democrats but also by Western countries, France and the United States in mind. While neighboring Algeria is confronted with violence, terrorism and the civil war, the "stability" of the Tunisian model seems all the more appreciable that the population accepts, at first, the recovery in hand of the country that accompanies it. For the majority of foreigners, Tunisia's President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali is above all a sunny tourist destination, which now welcomes millions of Europeans every year.
From the economic model to the authoritarian turn
Despite complaints from opposition leaders and activists denouncing attacks on freedom of expression and the imprisonment of political opponents, it was not until the early 2000s that international organizations human rights are beginning to call the Ben Ali regime "authoritative". The outgoing president's critics accuse him of silencing dissent. The press is controlled and freedoms are monitored.
Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali is also accused of having, with his relatives, monopolized the wealth and the key positions of the country. At the head of a party-state, he relied in particular on his family - his brothers and sisters, his daughters, his sons-in-law - but also on that of his second wife, Leïla Trabelsi. Considered more powerful than any minister, at the head of a system of nepotism and corruption, she would have taken control of entire sectors of the economy.
The fall of the raïs
The end of his reign is precipitated after the events of the end of 2010. On December 17, Mohamed Bouazizi, a young street vendor in Sidi Bouzid, immolates himself by fire in protest against the seizure of his goods. by the authorities. This gesture of despair moves the whole country and launches the beginning of a vast protest.
On January 10, 2011, Ben Ali denounced, during a televised speech, "terrorist acts" while promising the creation of 300,000 additional jobs by 2012. On January 13, 2011, he spoke on television for announce new measures intended to guarantee the freedom of the press and the freedom of political expression, as well as its renouncement of a candidacy in 2014. But this intervention is not enough to calm the anger. Accused, he announced January 14, the dismissal of his government and promises the organization of parliamentary elections within six months. Later in the day, he leaves the country for Saudi Arabia, under pressure from the Tunisian army and his entourage. In the street, cries and mobilization that ended twenty-three years of rule.