Habib Bourguiba on 8 April, in the afternoon, in his mausoleum. After a short ceremony at the Hanafi Mosque of Bourguiba, his body was transported on a gun carriage, coated with the national flag and carried by a military vehicle framed by detachments of the Tunisian army. Among the foreign guests were French President Jacques Chirac, Algerian Bouteflika, Palestinian Yasser Arafat and Egyptian Hosni Mubarak. After the burial, President Ben Ali pronounced a eulogy in which he paid a tribute to the "Loyal and devoted fight" of Bourguiba for Tunisia. The funeral conditions were, however, submitted to the criticism of international media
Habib Bourguiba Bourguiba often participated in political debates, read newspapers and followed closely the evolution of French politics during the Third Republic. Sensitive to the ideas of Leon Blum, following the Congress of Tours, he was opposed to the Bolsheviks and got interested in Gandhi's process to transform the Indian national Congress in a powerful mass organization. In addition, he showed a great interest in his Tunisian fellow, Mahmoud El Materi. After vacations spent between Mahdia and Monastir, Bourguiba returned to Paris for the start of the 1925–26 school year, worried about the nationalist struggle in his country. His conditions improved as