President of Tunisia may in exceptional circumstances put certain draft laws to a referendum. Article 87 specifies that the president enjoys legal immunity while in office. Since the promulgation of a republican constitution in June 1959, three years after gaining independence from France, Tunisia has had just three directly elected presidents. The first president was Habib Bourguiba, who became the country's first president after the proclamation of a republic in 1957; he had been the country's de facto leader as prime minister since independence in 1956. He was formally elected to the post in 1959, and was proclaimed president for life in 1975.
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