French Foreign Minister Quits After Tunisia Blunders

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French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has handed in her resignation following a series of scandals during the recent uprising in Tunisia. In particular she was heavily criticized for vacationing in Tunisia while protests raged.

French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie presented her resignation in a letter to President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday, following a series of gaffes over the uprising in Tunisia.

She will be replaced by French Defense Minister Alain Juppe, a veteran conservative who served as prime minister and foreign minister in the 1990s.

The switch comes as France is struggling to come to terms with a fast-spreading pro-democracy revolt across North African states, several of which are former French colonies.

The French political elite has had close ties with their authoritarian rulers.

A furore blew up over disclosures that Alliot-Marie went on holiday in Tunisia as protests raged there, and accepted private plane rides from a Tunisian businessman close to ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

On Friday, it was business as usual for Alliot-Marie.

[Michele Alliot-Marie, French Foreign Minister]:
"My motto is to do well and let people talk. It's true that for the past weeks, there have been controversies, rumours and attacks and this is very unpleasant and even more so when one's family is targeted. But I have explained myself, there was no illegal action or no faulty action that was taken, the President said it himself,"

But by Sunday she had resigned.

The government at first supported Alliot-Marie against a media outcry and opposition calls for her head, but polls showed the debacle was hurting Sarkozy's already rock-bottom ratings.

Her fall from grace has come as a surprise after a steady political career that saw her become the first woman to head the defense and interior ministries.