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French foreign min. urged to resign

18 February 2011 00:02 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. French opposition parties have called on the country’s foreign minister to quit after media reports revealed her â€œfree of chargeâ€ vacations in Tunisia just before revolution in the North African country, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Michele Alliot-Marie flew free of charge in a plane owned by Tunisian business tycoon Aziz Miled shortly before a popular uprising in Tunisia overthrew the dictatorship of President Ben Ali, a Press TV report says.

A weekly magazine reported that the parents of Alliot-Marie bought shares of a construction company owned by Miled.

Alliot-Marie has refused to step down from office and refuses to answer any further questions.

â€œI think she should have decided to resign from the moment she was not clean. She traveled, although on a private trip, but she’s the foreign minister and in such a case, she should step down,â€ Odette Duriez, a Socialist Party MP, told Press TV.

â€œIt will be the decision of the president and the minister herself if she should resign, but the situation is not acceptable. When one is a foreign minister, it is a full time job, and in this case there have been a series of accusations which go against her,â€ said Daniel Garrique, an independent MP, said.

From the beginning of Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency, he has pushed for an end to friendships with leaders in former French colonies in Africa, a diplomacy stemming from his predecessors.

From a legal point of view, French ministers are not breaking the law if they use services offered by other countries irrespective of their regimes.

French law simply says nothing about such activities. However, it remains to be seen if the opposition can push for a change in the law by introducing a more effective checks and balances mechanism.