Nouira, Hedi Amira

▪ 1994

      Tunisian politician (b. April 6, 1911, Monastir, Tunisia—d. Jan. 25, 1993, La Marsa, Tunisia), was the hard-line prime minister of Tunisia for a decade (1970-80) and the designated successor of the president-for-life, Habib Bourguiba, until a stroke ended his political career in March 1980. Nouira was educated in Paris and trained as a lawyer. In 1934 he was a founding member of Bourguiba's nationalist Neo-Destour Party (later renamed the Destourien Socialist Party). He became secretary of the Confederation of Tunisian Workers in 1938, but he was arrested for subversion by the French colonial authorities and held in detention in France until he was released (1940) by the German occupation forces. After returning to Tunisia, Nouira was the Neo-Destour Party's secretary-general (1942-54, 1969-80). He joined the Tunisian government as minister of commerce (1954-55) and finance (1955-58) and then served as governor of the country's newly formed central bank (1958-70). As prime minister from Nov. 2, 1970, he supervised the early stages of Tunisia's economic revival while rejecting calls for multiparty elections and ruthlessly crushing all opposition to President Bourguiba's policies. In 1974 Nouira stepped in to quash a proposed union between Tunisia and Libya.

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