World Crisis Online

Pressure was mounting on Michele Alliot-Marie, French foreign minister, to quit after yet more revelations about her links to the discredited regime of former Tunisian president Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Ms Alliot-Marie had previously said she had had no special contact with Mr Ben Ali during the popular uprising that eventually forced him out of office. But on Wednesday, Ms Alliot-Marie confirmed that she had had a telephone conversation with the then Tunisian leader while on a new year’s break during the revolt in the north African country.

Ms Alliot-Marie’s admission coincided with revelations in Le Canard Echainé, the satirical weekly, that Ms Alliot-Marie’s parents, aged 94 and 92, had accompanied her on the holiday to complete a property deal with a businessman linked to the Ben Ali regime.

Ms Alliot-Marie has already come under fire for offering France’s savoir faire to the Ben Ali regime to “resolve security situations”.

Le Monde, the French daily newspaper, launched a virulent attack on Ms Alliot-Marie in a front-page editorial, accusing the minister of being less than candid in her version of events surrounding the ill-timed holiday.

“How far must we descend into triviality and indignity before the French foreign minister understands that she is damaging the role she occupies?” the editorial said.

The scandal has shattered confidence in one of France’s most experienced and well-liked politicians, who has held most of the big ministerial posts and is affectionately known by her initials, M.A.M. It has also sparked persistent questions about France’s ambiguous relationship with discredited regimes in Africa and the Middle East.

For the ruling centre right UMP party, the controversy also threatens to damage its chances at forthcoming local elections. One UMP deputy suggested that should further revelations emerge, Ms Alliot-Marie could be replaced after the vote. Already the name of Alain Juppé, former prime minister and now defence minister, is circulating as a potential replacement.

UMP deputies said Ms Alliot-Marie’s handling of the controversy had caused serious damage. Recently she was forced to admit that she had accepted two internal flights, and not just one as originally implied, from Aziz Miled, owner of the carrier Nouvelair and business partner to members of the Ben Ali family.

In parliamentary questions on Wednesday, Ms Alliot-Marie received little open support from her own party, those present said. Francois Fillon, the prime minister who has also come under fire for a holiday in Egypt at the invitation of former President Hosni Mubarak, notably failed to defend his foreign minister when called to do so from the floor, as he had done last week, said one deputy. Ms Alliot-Marie insisted she would not resign and said there had been no wrongdoing.

Two ministers present at the weekly cabinet meeting told AFP reporters that President Nicolas Sarkozy had offered Ms Alliot-Marie a handwritten message of support, indicating her departure was not imminent. In a television broadcast last week, Mr Sarkozy acknowledged that the Tunisian holiday had not been well-timed but refused to criticise Ms Alliot-Marie. Ms Sarkozy has a record of refusing to give in to public pressure to sack ministers caught up in controversy.