The political world of France was hit with an unexpected scandal today as news emerged of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest by NYPD late last night on charges of attempted rape.
Strauss-Kahn, a former French Finance Minister and member of the Socialist Party of France, has been serving as the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund since 2007. Responsible for the French economic turn-a-round in the the 90s that ensured the country’s entry into the EU, Strauss-Kahn was nonetheless forced to resign as Finance Minister amongst accusations of corruption relating to a fraud investigation into Elf Aquitaine, a French oil company, although he was later acquitted.
In a dramatic turn of events Strauss-Kahn was removed by Port Authority detectives from an Air France flight bound for Paris at JFK airport around 4:30pm Saturday, minutes before the flight was to take off. He was arrested by NYPD around 2am Sunday “on charges of a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, and an unlawful imprisonment in connection with a sexual assault” on a 32-year-old maid at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan that apparently took place sometime Saturday afternoon.
NYPD reports that according to the maid (whose name is being withheld) she had entered Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s suite at the hotel and while she has there he had “come out of the bathroom fully naked… [and] attempted to pull her into the bedroom and onto the bed.” The woman managed to flee from Strauss-Kahn and alerted other hotel staff, who contacted police. When police arrived on the scene Mr. Strauss-Kahn was gone and had apparently left in a hurry, leaving behind his cell phone.
A bizarre and grotesque tale in its own right, the incident has also shook France’s politics in particular as Strauss-Kahn was a largely popular figure in France and considered to be the front-runner for the Socialist Party’s nomination in the 2012 presidential elections. For some time now Strauss-Kahn has been considered the main rival to incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy. With Strauss-Kahn’s political career most likely scuttled for good, France has been left with a great uncertainty regarding next year’s elections.
However, Sarkozy’s fate is largely sealed with 60 percent of French people registering disapproval of the president in recent polls. And while the Socialist party has been scrambling to come up with some serious PR (asking voters to reserve judgment until all the facts are in) the fact is that they have another candidate in waiting, Francois Hollande, who has been gaining in opinion polls, something which has been attributed to his more down-to-earth image that contrasts sharply with both Strauss-Kahn and Sarkosy’s more flamboyant and high-rolling lifestyle. Indeed, the presidential race could now be shaping up to be a battle between the Socialist’s Hollande and a Ms. Marine le Pen of the far-right National Front Party.
Already Business Insider is quoting a French blog which says that Strauss-Kahn will announce his resignation from the IMF later today. Whether or not the charges turn out to be founded this resignation seems to be all but assured. The IMF has issued an extremely lukewarm statment saying that they have no comment on the ongoing investigation, indicating that the organization is unwilling to continue defending the man after having to publicly apologize for him in a 2008 scandal involving Strauss-Kahn’s affair with a junior economist at the IMF. Strauss-Kahn is obviously no stranger to sexual misconduct.
Strauss-Kahn’s political rivals in France have come out swinging with Ms. le Pen stating quite unequivocally that “the case and the charges mark the end of his campaign for the presidency.” Others seemed more upset for France’s international image overall: Bernard Debré, a lawmaker in Mr. Sarkozy’s UMP party said that the arrest was “a humiliation and an affront to the honor of France. Everyone will now say, ‘Look at what the French do,’ ” adding that Strauss-Kahn’s political career “must be ended — he will be condemned.”
Sources: Time, NYT, NYT.
More info: Strauss-Kahn, 2012 French Presidential Elections.
