Hostility towards the Bey showed no signs of decreasing. He was boycotted by the other Husainid princes when he went to the mosque for Eid al-Fitr. To raise his prestige, he was invited to Paris where he attended the military parades on 14 July 1945, standing next to De Gaulle. He then went on to visit Germany. For Tunisians however, he remained 'The Bey of the French'. In August 1946 when the capital was at a standstill during a general strike to protest the arrest of several nationalists, he feigned ill-health to cancel the ceremony of kissing hands which he was due to hold for Eid al-Fitr, but when he passed through the streets of Tunis in February 1947 on the Mawlid festival, he could readily see his subjects' indifference. The anniversary of his accession was regarded by shopkeepers as a good occasion to close their premises and put up portraits of his predecessor. People even spat on his car. His health deteriorated in the face of this hatred and in 1947 an x-ray revealed a lesion in his left lung. Dr. Mohamed Ben Salem (1915–2001), husband of his daughter Princess Zakia, became his doctor and later his political advisor as well.