Ten years ago, began in Benghazi, the insurgency against Gaddafi, the "Guide" who ruled Libya with an iron fist since its military coup in 1969 against the monarchy.
From March, the French president, anxious to get on the bandwagon of the "Arab Spring", decides to defend the rebels politically, then militarily.
He is joined by British Prime Minister Cameron and US President Obama, under the guise of NATO.
The French fighter-bombers nail to the ground the armored brigade of Gaddafi advancing towards Benghazi.
In Europe, Nicolas Sarkozy however meets the skepticism of the German and Italian governments.
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A decade of exile for the Libyans in Tunis
Gaddafi was certainly a cruel dictator, ruthless with his opponents.
But it presented, in the eyes of many European diplomats, three important advantages.
First, at the start of the 2000s, he abandoned his revolutionary inclinations to get closer, economically and strategically, to the West.
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