Ahmed Ben Salah

Ahmed Ben Salah (13 January 1926 – 16 September 2020) was a Tunisian politician and trade union leader. His power and influence peaked between 1957 and 1969 when he was able to implement his ideas for a planned economy, holding simultaneously several key ministerial posts.

Life

Early years Ahmed Ben Salah was born at Moknine, a mid-sized town in the coastal Sahel region, located between Monastir to the north and Mahdia to the south, in a region that during the run-up to decolonisation came to be known for nationalism. He undertook his secondary education at the prestigious Sadiki College in Tunis, completing his schooling in France during the 1940s.

His schooling finished, he entered the world of liberation politics, becoming president of the youth wing of the Destourian party (jeunesse scolaire destourienne) and in 1947, while still in France, working to ensure liaison between the Neo Destour nationalist movement in Tunisia, their exiled leader, Habib Bourguiba, in Cairo, and Moncef Bey, the former bey/king, who was living out his final years under surveillance in Pau (southwest France). In May 1988, one year after the régime change that brought a new president to power in Tunisia, Ben Salah received a pardon and returned to Tunisia after a fifteen-year exile. On 21 August 1989 he submitted an application to register the "Popular Unity Party", but the application was ignored. In September 1990, he found himself obliged to go back into exile, returning home definitively only in September 2000.

On 12 February 2011, following a further régime change, a renewed application to register the "Popular Unity Party" was submitted, and on 8 March 2011 the party which he served as General Secretary was finally authorised to undertake political activity. Ben Salah became the party's president on 13 May 2012.

Honours Tunisian national honours Grand Cordon of the Order of Independence (1965)

Foreign honors Algeria: Medal of Honor of the Republic of Algeria (3 January 2013)

Publications Témoignage d'Ahmed Ben Salah sur son parcours national et international, Zaghouan, Fondation Temimi pour la recherche scientifique et l'information, 2002. Pour rétablir la vérité : réformes et développement en Tunisie, 1961-1969, Tunis, Cérès, 2008.