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28th Mar 2024

Strauss-Kahn bid for French presidency is 'weakest scenario'

  • Strauss-Kahn (r) and Sarkozy at the French presidential palace, the Elysee, last year (Photo: elysee.fr)

A political comeback in time for the presidential race in France remains unlikely for Dominique Strauss-Kahn despite good poll ratings and favourable developments in his New York case.

Following his spectacular arrest on 14 May in New York on the eve of a eurozone meeting, Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest late last week after prosecutors found that the alleged victim - a hotel maid from Guinea - lied under oath.

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Tipped before the scandal as the most serious contender from the Socialist camp against Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential re-election bid, Strauss-Kahn still enjoys a general approval rating of between 49 percent and 60 percent among left-wing voters.

Amid wild conspiracy theories linking President Sarkozy, the French intelligence services and the management of the New York Sofitel hotel to the sexual assault allegations against Strauss-Kahn, the Socialist camp is wary of endorsing his political comeback.

Segolene Royal, a former presidential candidate herself, has spoken of "giving him time" and of "not putting pressure on Dominique."

But Martine Aubry, the chairwoman of the Socialist Party and herself the current frontrunner for the socialist presidential candidacy, has said that "nobody would dare" to block his return to the race.

Strauss-Kahn still has to attend a hearing in the US court on 18 July, five days after a deadline to register for the Socialist primaries.

A late entry to the party primaries may be considered, said party spokesman Benoit Hamon, if Strauss-Kahn misses the 13 July deadline due to his court hearing. He also said that the former IMF chief's return to French politics is "the weakest" of all possible scenarios, however.

Meanwhile, a new complaint concerning an alleged sexual assault back in 2003 is to be filed on Tuesday by Tristane Banon, a journalist and god-daughter of Strauss-Kahn's second wife.

Banon, now 32 years old, claims that Strauss-Kahn agreed to an interview in February 2003 only if she held his hand. He then jumped on her, she claims, and opened her bra and jeans.

"When I realised that he really wanted to rape me I started kicking him with my boots. I was terrified," she said in an interview published on Monday in French weekly L'Express.

Banon claims she had not pursued the case back then because "everyone told me it would never succeed," including her own mother - also a leading Socialist figure close to the Strauss-Kahn camp. But the New York case prompted her to come forward.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said on Monday they had been instructed to file a legal complaint against Banon for making false statements about "imaginary" events.

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