FRANCE’S FOREIGN minister Michèle Alliot-Marie came under pressure to resign yesterday as she struggled to staunch a row over a holiday she took in Tunisia while its uprising was taking place.
Ms Alliot-Marie has been on the defensive since it was revealed last week that she took a flight aboard a Tunisian businessman’s private jet in Tunisia in late December, while the protests that ultimately toppled President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali were under way.
Le Canard Enchaîné alleged that the tycoon was close to Ben Ali, but Ms Alliot-Marie has insisted he was a personal friend who was a victim of the ruling clan’s interference in business.
With the minister already badly damaged by her offer to share French security expertise with the Tunisian authorities just days before Ben Ali was deposed, the opposition has been pressing for her resignation. The pressure intensified yesterday, when Ms Alliot-Marie defended herself against new reports that she had taken a second internal flight aboard the same private jet in Tunisia in December.
The minister was ridiculed by the Socialist Party (PS) at the weekend when, resisting calls to step down, she remarked, “When I’m on holidays, I’m not the minister for foreign affairs”.
She corrected herself yesterday, acknowledging that “one is minister 24 hours a day, 365 days a year”. With the government struggling to contain the damage and President Nicolas Sarkozy silent on the issue in recent days, the opposition clamour for a resignation grew louder yesterday. “The only way for Ms Alliot-Marie to recover a little dignity is for her to go,” said PS spokesman Benoît Hamon.
“I don’t understand why she is still there,” echoed the socialists’ Pierre Moscovici.
Ms Alliot-Marie has insisted she did nothing wrong and that she and her parents – who, along with her partner, were with her in Tunisia – paid for the trip. On Europe 1 radio yesterday, she said she would never again take flights aboard private jets while serving as minister.
The minister, a centre-right stalwart who was portrayed as a safe pair of hands when she was appointed last November, received measured support from her party colleagues yesterday.
“She has explained what happened, she has said she regretted it. For me the controversy is over,” said higher education minister Valérie Pécresse.
In Tunisia, meanwhile, a number of people have been killed in recent days during sporadic violent incidents in several cities. The interior ministry said a man died after being hit by a tear gas grenade during clashes in Kebili, about 400km south of Tunis, while two people died when police opened fire to quell a protest in the northern town of El Kef.
The interim government claims some former officials of Ben Ali’s RCD party are involved in an attempt to destabilise the country and ministers moved at the weekend to suspend formally the activities of the former ruling party.
