Disgraced IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was a popular French Socialist politician and a favorite to unseat Nicholas Sarkozy next year before he was accused of rape and paraded in front of the world media as a criminal.
Now that the accuser’s credibility is in doubt, his party is celebrating the potential for their hero to return home:
French Socialist politician Michele Sabban said her party should put its presidential primary calendar on hold if Strauss-Kahn is exonerated. The deadline for Socialists to declare candidacy for the party’s presidential primary is July 13. The primary vote is scheduled for October.
“If Dominique Strauss-Kahn is cleared, I ask the Socialist Party to suspend the primary process,” Sabban said Friday on i-tele television.
The chief of the Socialist Party, Martine Aubry, said the news brought her “immense joy.”
“I hope that the American justice system establishes all the truth tonight and allows Dominique to get out of this nightmare,” she told reporters.
Aubry announced this week that she will seek the Socialist nomination for president. She and Strauss-Kahn had been rumored to be discussing some kind of joint ticket for the election
Europeans tend to be more tolerant of promiscuous (illegal) sexual activity (see Berlusconi, Silvio of Italy) on the part of their politicians, and as long as rape charges are dropped, Strauss-Kahn might attempt a comeback.
