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PARIS — The French foreign minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, was fired Sunday because of a Christmas vacation spent at a Tunisian resort while the country was caught up in a crescendo of violent protests that eventually toppled the authoritarian president.
She and her family also enjoyed two jaunts in a corporate jet owned by a wealthy Tunisian businessman connected to the corrupt family of now-exiled President Zine el-Abidine ben Ali.
Alliot-Marie’s lack of diplomatic judgment, compounded by falsehoods as she attempted to explain away the problem, embarrassed President Nicolas Sarkozy as he tries to recover from a slump in public support ahead of a re-election campaign in 2012.
![Newspaper advertisement offering reward for the return of an escaped man to his oppressors, Princess Anne, Maryland, April 1, 1861. Text reads: “0 Reward. Ranaway from the subscriber on Tuesday Morning, 26th Ultimo [last month], My negro boy calling himself Severn Black. The said negro is about 5 feet six inches in height, chesnut color, has a scar on his upperlip, downcast countenance when spoken to, blink-eyed, showing a great deal of white, long bushy hair, is about twenty years old, had on when he lefta [sic] blue fustian Jacket, pantaloons of a greyish color, blue striped shirt, a Black slouch hat and shoes nearly worn out. The above reward will be paid by me for the apprehension and delivery of the said negro in the county jail at Princess Anne, Somerset County, Maryland. April 1, 1861. Richard E. Snelling. Somerset Herald Print, Princess Anne, Md.’ The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 obliged citizens and lawmen of free zones to return escaped men to those whom they fled. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)](/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GettyImages-53262583-16x9-1.jpg?w=620 "GettyImages-53262583-16x9-1")
