After several weeks of calm has returned to Tunis on Saturday gatherings: about 15,000 people marched in the capital to defend secularism and 3,000 gathered outside the gates of the embassy of France. This mobilization is the latest episode of a Franco-Tunisian who has cooled somewhat since the fall of the regime of Zine Ben Ali, mid-January. Arrived on Wednesday, Boris Boillon has incurred the wrath of Tunisians in less than three days. In a video circulating on the internet is seen berating journalists for their questions Tunisian "morons" on the Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie or France's ties with former Tunisian president. "Boris Boillon liberates," chanted the demonstrators, turning the slogan coined the highest hours of the protest against Zine Ben Ali, forced to flee the country under pressure from the street. "Boris Boillon is a mercenary and an impostor", could read one placard. In Paris Ministry of Foreign Affairs has downplayed the extent of the controversy. "This is an isolated incident," he said on RTL spokesman at the Quai d'Orsay, Bernard Valero, on RTL. "We must remain calm and perspective because he has met many journalists and already thousands of Tunisian authorities which have all expressed their support and encouragement," he added. "His track record is to go with Tunisia on the road to democracy and development". Outcry, the new ambassador, who was an advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy at the Interior Ministry has sent a message of reconciliation via Twitter. "Really sorry if I have offended. It was not my intention, "writes Boris Boillon." We deserve a public apology and TV, "an indignant user's Facebook page titled" All Boillon cons "in which over 7,000 people had signed up Saturday. "NEW PAGE"? "Ambassador Sarkozyism star so far in Baghdad, embodies the diplomacy of business when the priority should be to reconnect with the civil society" can be also read on the page, which are denounced his positions in favor of U.S. intervention in Iraq. Paris is trying to rectify the situation with Tunis in late January after acknowledging that the French authorities had been slow to take the measure of popular protest that led to the escape of the former president. In the aftermath, Nicolas Sarkozy reiterated France's ambassador in Tunis Ménat Pierre and appointed in his place Boillon Boris, 41, who grew up in Algeria and speaks fluent Arabic. The cascading revelations about the holiday Tunisian Foreign Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, did not contribute to warm bilateral relations. The Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said last week she would travel to Tunis on February 22. It will be the first member of the French government to go on the floor the former French protectorate since the fall of Ben Ali as the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy have already sent emissaries. Upon his arrival in Tunis, Boris Boillon had multiplied the signs of good will, combining statements in French and Arabic, meeting the President of the Tunisian League of Human Rights and inviting reporters to lunch. "We're really here to open a new page in relations between our two countries," he says on the video of the meeting posted on the internet. About Michele Alliot-Marie, "I do not comment, I am not aware," said Boris Boillon which advocates a "contract of confidence" with journalists. According Mediapart and Rue89, the exchange turns sour when one of them asked about the "lessons" that Paris does not intend to Tunis and then another when he speaks of his predecessor and his relationship with Nicolas Sarkozy. "Do not make me fall on stupid things frankly. You think I have that level? You think I'm in the stupid little phrase? I'm here to expound a philosophy", carried away the diplomat, is meant also to say "this is nonsense!".
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/4/20110219/tts-tunisie-france-ambassadeur-ca02f96.html
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