Habib Bourguiba I am still of this world, I will be maintained at the head of State". In May 1973, Bourguiba met with Algerian President Houari Boumediene in Kef. This one told him: "The beginning is the union between Algeria and Tunisia. We will do it methodically but firmly [...] we will proceed in stages". Bourguiba, surprised by the proposition, suggested: "Algeria can yield Constantine to restore a better geographical balance between the two countries". During an interview with the Egyptian weekly "El Moussaouar", on 20 September, Bourguiba made a statement, sharing his thoughts about any further union project: In January 1974,
Early life of Habib Bourguiba on the very night he got back home, in 1865. When he left the army, France had just taken full control over the country, with the signature of the Bardo Treaty on May 12, 1881 and the Conventions of La Marsa of June 8, 1883, which established the French protectorate with the approval of Sadok Bey. One year before its establishment, Ali Bourguiba, who was 30 years old, married Fattouma Khefacha, daughter of Ahmed Khefacha and Khadouja Mzali, which linked the Bourguiba family to the Mzali one (family of Habib Bourguiba's future prime minister Mohamed Mzali). Impoverished, the family was