Habib Bourguiba State-party system and the Bourguiba-Ben Salah conjunction "Plunged Tunisia into a headlong rush and whirlpool outbid that overshadowed elementary realities." Therefore, the first troubles started on 15 December in Msaken: The people protested against the obligation the 147 small farmers had to integrate new cooperatives of fruit trees, that would replace their 80000 olive trees. Following the events, the government proceeded to arrest of ten protesters and the disbandment of party cells that supported farmers. During this period, Bourguiba distinguished himself from his Arab counterparts in foreign policy. Twenty years before Egyptian President Anouar El-Sadate, he favored the normalization of
Habib Bourguiba unconstitutionality of the referendum. It was in that context, that the new congress of SPD, held in Monastir on 12 September, decided to amend the constitution in order to institute life presidency for Habib Bourguiba, who obtained this title from the National Assembly on 18 March 1975. The constitutional revision added a paragraph to Article 39 specifying that "exceptionally and in consideration of the eminent services of "Supreme Commander" Habib Bourguiba to the Tunisian people that he freed from the yoke of colonialism and which he turned into a united independent modern nation, enjoying the fullness of sovereignty, the National