Important eventsBack

Tunisia achieved independence from France in 1956 led by Habib Bourguiba, who later became the first Tunisian President. The secular Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), formerly Neo Destour, controlled the country as one of the most repressive regimes in the Arab World since its independence in 1956.

In November 1987, doctors declared Bourguiba unfit to rule and, in a bloodless coup d'état, Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali assumed the presidency. President Ben Ali, previously Habib Bourguiba's minister and a military figure, held office from 1987 to 2011, having acceded to the executive office of Habib Bourguiba after a team of medical experts judged Bourguiba unfit to exercise the functions of the office in accordance with Article 57 of the Tunisian constitution. The anniversary of Ben Ali’s succession, November 7, was celebrated as a national holiday. He was consistently re-elected with enormous majorities every election, the last being 25 October 2009, until he fled the country amid popular unrest in January 2011.

Ben Ali and his family were accused of corruption and plundering the country's money. Corrupt members of the Trabelsi family, most notably in the cases of Imed Trabelsi and Belhassen Trabelsi, controlled much of the business sector in the country. The First Lady Leila Ben Ali was described as an "unabashed shopaholic" who used the state airplane to make frequent unofficial trips to Europe's fashion capitals. Tunisia refused a French request for the extradition of two of the President's nephews, from Leila's side, who were accused by the French State prosecutor of having stolen two mega-yachts from a French marina. Ben Ali's son-in-law Sakher El Materi was rumoured as being primed to eventually take over the country.

Independent human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Protection International, have documented that basic human and political rights were not respected. The regime obstructed in any way possible the work of local human rights organizations. In 2008, in terms of freedom of the press, Tunisia was ranked 143rd out of 173.