Neo Destour

The New Constitutional Liberal Party (

Led by Habib Bourguiba, Neo Destour became the ruling party upon Tunisian independence in 1956. In 1964, it was renamed the Socialist Destourian Party.

History

The party was formed as a result of a split from the pre-existing Destour party in 1934, during the Ksar Hellal Congress of March 2.^[4][5][6] Several leaders were particularly prominent during the party's early years before World War II: Habib Bourguiba, Mahmoud El Materi, Tahar Sfar, Bahri Guiga, and Salah ben Youssef.^[7][8][9]

Prior to the split, a younger group of Destour members had alarmed the party elders by appealing directly to the populace through their more radical newspaper L'Action Tunisienne. The younger group, many from the provinces, seemed more in tune with a wider spectrum of the country-wide Tunisian people, while the party elders represented a more established constituency in the capital city of Tunis; yet both groups were proponents of change, either autonomy or independence. The rupture came at the Destour party congress of 1934.^[10][11]

World War II

At the outbreak of war in 1939, Neo-Destour leaders, though still untried,^[

The Neo-Destour Party was one of the Arab factions that the Nazi Germans hoped to win over to the Axis side . As majority of its leaders imprisoned by the French, Eitel Friedrich Moellhausen, Rahn's deputy, argued that the Arabs could be incited to action “against Jews and Anglo-Saxons” through the release of the prisoners in Marseille, without the Germans having to provide specific assurances concerning independence.^[16]

Post WWII

Eventually the Neo Destour led the

Tunisian General Labor Union in Bourguiba's camp. The Neo Destour party expelled Ben Yusuf that October; in November 1955 he mounted a large street demonstration but to no avail. Ben Yusuf then left for Nasser's Egypt where he was welcomed.^[17][18]

Independence of Tunisia from France was negotiated largely by the Neo Destour's Bourguiba. The effective date was March 20, 1956. The next year the Republic of Tunisia was constituted, which replaced the

Beylical form of government. The Neo Destour became the ruling party under Prime Minister and later President Habib Bourguiba.^[19] In 1963, the Neo Destour was proclaimed the only legally permitted party

in Tunisia, though for all intents and purposes the country had been a one-party state since independence.

Later, the Neo Destour party was renamed the Socialist Destourian Party (PSD in its French acronym) in 1964, to signal the government's commitment to a socialist phase of political-economic development. This phase failed to fulfill expectations, however, and was discontinued in 1969 with the dismissal of Ahmad ben Salah as economics minister by President Bourguiba.^[20][21][22]

In 1988, under President

Rassemblement Constitutionel Démocratique (RCD).^[23] The RCD continued as the Tunisian ruling party under President Ben Ali, who became increasingly corrupt and dictatorial. Early in 2011, he was forced out of office and his regime and the ruling party abolished, as a result of the liberal Tunisian Revolution. Similar subsequent events of popular regime change, which had spread to other Arab countries, became known as the Arab Spring.^[24]

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election	Party candidate	Votes	%	Result
1959	Habib Bourguiba	1,005,769	100%	Elected Y

Chamber of Deputies elections

Election	Party leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Result
1956	Habib Bourguiba	597,763	98.7%	98 / 98	98	1st	Supermajority government
1959		1,002,298	99.7%	90 / 90	8	1st	Supermajority government

Notable people

• Hédi Saidi

See also

• Destour
• Socialist Destourian Party (PSD)
• Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD)

Reference notes

1. ISBN 978-0-19-759844-3
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2. ISBN 978-1-135-00731-7
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3. ^ Dar Ayed Museum in Ksar Hellal will soon be renovated: https://directinfo.webmanagercenter.com/2016/06/25/monastir-musee-dar-ayed-a-ksar-hellal-connaitra-bientot-des-travaux-de-renovation/
4. ^ The Destour Party had been founded in 1920. Kenneth J. Perkins, A History of Modern Tunisia (Cambridge University 2004) p. 79.
5. ^ Lisa Anderson, The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830-1980 (Princeton University 1986) pp. 162-167, 171.
6. S2CID 153808889
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7. ^ Perkins, A History of Modern Tunisia (Cambridge University 2004) pp. 95-96, 98.
8. ^ Robert Rinehart, "Historical Setting" at 42, in Tunisia. A Country Study edited by Harold D. Nelson (Washington, D.C. 1987).
9. S2CID 153563466
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10. ^ Richard M. Brace, Morocco Algeria Tunisia (Prentice Hall 1964) pp. 62-63.
11. ^ Lisa Anderson, The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830-1980 (Princeton University 1986) pp. 163, 167.
12. ^ "Tunisia - The protectorate (1881–1956)". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
13. ^ ^{a b} "Arab Propagandist, Ousted by Argentina, Now in Venezuela". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 1977-03-08. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
14. ISBN 978-0-8276-0114-7
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15. ISBN 978-1-883053-72-7
    . Throughout the 1960s, Tacuara drew additional inspiration for its antiSemitic and anti-Israel views from contacts both with neo-Nazi organizations in other countries and Hussein Triki, the Arab League's representative in Buenos Aires, who promoted anti-Semitism under cover of anti-Zionism and as part of the anti- colonialist, anti-imperialist struggle... During the years of World War II, Triki had been a member of the nationalist movement in Tunisia. After the Allied victory in El Alamein, Triki escaped to Nazi-controlled territory where he disseminated propaganda against the Allies, collaborating with the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin El-Husseini, who at the time was directing Nazi propaganda broadcasts in the Middle East.
16. ISBN 978-1-929631-93-3
    .
17. ^ Perkins, A History of Modern Tunisia (Cambridge University 2004) pp. 116-118, 126-129.
18. ^ Jacob Abadi, Tunisia since the Arab Conquest (Reading: Uthaca Press 2013) pp. 430-431, 451-453 (Ben Salah)
19. ^ Brace, Morocco Algeria Tunisia (Prentice Hall 1964) pp. 114-116, 121-123, 140-143.
20. ^ Perkins, A History of Modern Tunisia (Cambridge University 2004) at 146-147.
21. ^ Jean R. Tartter, "Government and Politics" at 234-238, in Tunisia. A Country Study (Washington, D. C. 1987).
22. ^ Abadi, Tunisia since the Arab Conquest (Ithaca 2013) pp. 139-141.
23. ^ Perkins, A History of Modern Tunisia (Cambridge University 2004) p.185.
24. ^ Abadi, Tunisia since the Arab Conquest (Ithaca 2013) pp. 544-545.