"My little Arab!"

"... French diplomacy is struggling to recover from its mishandling of the popular uprisings in the Arab world and cosy business and arms ties to authoritarian regimes. During the brutal repression of the Tunisian revolution, the French foreign minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, offered the "savoir faire" of French police to help the regime. It emerged that mid-revolt, she and her parents stayed with, and did business with, a crony of the dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Alliot-Marie, who has refused to quit, is now so loathed in the former French colonial protectorate that the Tunisian foreign minister was forced to resign for saying he respected her..... The embarrassment was compounded last weekend when hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets demanding the departure of the new French ambassador, Boris Boillon, a "Sarkoboy" and presidential protege parachuted in after Sarkozy sacked the previous ambassador for failing to predict the revolution. Boillon, 41, once referred to by Sarkozy as "my little Arab" because he speaks Arabic, was forced to deliver a humiliating apology on Tunisian television after being filmed throwing a Sarkozy-style tantrum and insulting local journalists who asked him about his inexperience.

Unnamed ambassadors briefing the press have complained about Sarkozy's personality. One told Libération that French foreign policy, like Sarkozy, had become "agitated, impulsive, ideologically incoherent and contradictory". Diplomats complained the Elysée sidelined and ignored its diplomats over the Arab uprisings. .... The Socialist leader, Martine Aubry, told French radio: "Today it's clear that French diplomacy no longer exists; we're confusing contracts with diplomacy and that's why France is shrinking in the world. Its voice no longer carries." French diplomats' resentment of Sarkozy had been growing under his previous foreign minister, the leftwing former humanitarian champion, Bernard Kouchner, who was dubbed Mr Know It All by foreign office staff who complained that he was arrogant.