Keyword: French foreign minister

It's touché for Juppé and wait-and-see for Sarkozy

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Juppé et Sarkozy, le 14 octobre en Aquitaine. © Reuters Juppé et Sarkozy, le 14 octobre en Aquitaine. © Reuters

President Nicolas Sarkozy's appointment of veteran Gaullist politician Alain Juppé to the post of foreign affairs minister marked the consummation of a forced political marriage between two longstanding rivals (photo), celebrated in November. Marine Turchi charts their turbulent years of sniping and strife, all of which promise further fireworks ahead of next year's presidential elections.

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French foreign minister lost in Tunisia fable

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French foreign affairs minister Michèle Alliot-Marie has come under intense pressure to resign following further revelations about her New Year's holidays with her partner and family in strife-torn Tunisia. Contradicting her version hitherto of events, it now emerges that during the trip she held talks with now-deposed president and despot Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, while her parents signed a business deal with an entrepreneur close to the regime. Here, Mediapart compares the minister's public statements with the truth established so far, revealing how she has misled both the French public and parliament.

The French foreign minister, Ben Ali and the jet

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Bombardier © DR Bombardier © DR

A private jet used by French foreign affairs minister Michèle Alliot-Marie while holidaying in strife-torn Tunisia for the New Year belonged to a company run by the reviled brother-in-law of deposed Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Mediapart can reveal (along with the aircraft's intriguing flight log).

Bernard Kouchner, a minister stuck between a rock and a hard place

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Bernard Kouchner was French foreign affairs minister until the reshuffle. It was a largely undignified departure for the former Socialist Party bigwig and humanitarian aid pioneer. In this article first published in September, Thomas Cantaloube, with help of ministry insiders, charts the demise of a man who ended his career as an ineffectual minister serving his former political adversaries.