1987 Tunisian coup d'état
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Coup attempt succeeds with minimum disruption.
The 1987 Tunisian coup d'état involved the bloodless ousting of the ageing President of Tunisia Habib Bourguiba on 7 November 1987, and his replacement as president by his recently appointed Prime Minister, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The action was justified by reference to Bourgiba's failing health and Article 57 of the country's constitution. Reports later surfaced to indicate that the Italian intelligence services had been involved in planning it.
Sources sometimes identify the 1987 coup as the "Révolution de jasmin" (Jasmin Revolution) as the jasmine flower is considered a symbol of Tunisia. However, more recent sources also use exactly the same term to identify the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. This can cause confusion.
During the night of 6 November 1987 a group of seven doctors signed a medical report attesting to the mental incapacity of Bourguiba. The political journalist Mezri Haddad summarised the report as follows:
Officially aged 84, Bourguiba fell asleep while receiving a foreign visitor. Influenced by those who coveted the presidency, the next day he sacked a minister just one day after appointing him. He agreed to his prime minister's cabinet reshuffle only to retract his agreement a few hours later. Worst of all, he insisted on overturning a court verdict on Rached Ghannouchi whom he viewed as an extremist ("I want fifty heads ... I want thirty heads ... I want Ghannouchi").
In justification of the coup Zine El Abidine Ben Ali invoked Article 57 of the , as he assumed power. He rapidly emerged, therefore, not merely as the constitutional president, but also as the commander in chief of the army. The journalists Nicolas Beau and Jean-Pierre Tuquoi summarise the circumstances under which the necessary medical opinion had been obtained:
Seven doctors, including two military doctors, were called together in the middle of the night, not to the sickbed of Bourguiba, but to the Interior Ministry. One of the seven was the president's doctor at the time, the cardiologist and military general Mohamed Gueddiche. At the ministry they found Ben Ali who told them to formulate a written opinion on the incapacity of the president. One of the doctors began to protest that he had not seen Bourguiba for two years. "That does not matter. Sign!", interjected General Ben Ali.
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