An embarrassed France backpedals from its support of Tunisia's Ben Ali

[pampango]

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/0120/An-embarrassed-France-backpedals-from-its-support-of-Tunisia-s-Ben-Ali

French support of Ben Ali and French silence on the shootings of Tunisians has brought a week of recriminations in Paris. France now admits it was out of touch with Tunisian public opinion, has barred Ben Ali from coming here, and says it is freezing the ousted president’s assets.

Mr. Cheikh Rouhou says that France can start by revitalizing a Mediterranean Union in a serious way. The union idea, proposed by President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, was a bid to improve French and European Union ties in North Africa. So far, says Cheikh Rouhou, it has mostly been "nonsensical talk."

“Put the head office of the Mediterranean Union in Tunis. Create an EBRD style agency for North Africa. The EBRD rebuilt Eastern Europe with loans and projects. Is France now ready to have the courage to make this something serious?” ask Cheikh Rouhou.

In the wake of a near total French misreading of the democratic aspirations of Tunisian people, one "proof" might be a free-trade agreement that allows Tunisian vegetables to be more available in France, he adds.