Even before Tristane Banon announced that she would bring her attempted rape charge, Mr Strauss-Kahn’s prospects for entering the presidential race appeared shaky.
Since the case involving the maid all but collapsed in New York on Friday, some colleagues have been urging Mr Strauss-Kahn to join the contest despite a widespread view that he has been too damaged by the exposure of his sexual conduct and extravagant lifestyle.
Ms Banon’s action could now clinch a decision by the French Socialist star not to try his chances in the campaign in which he was once the strong favourite. A new poll yesterday, however, confirmed that France has not forgiven him everything. The survey for Le Nouvel Observateur magazine found that 63 per cent of the French believe that he is too discredited to join the race.
Although Ms Banon’s action is seen by Mr Strauss-Kahn’s allies as a ploy to sabotage his political career, and much of the Socialist party and wider public are outraged at what appears to be the wrongful destruction of his career and reputation in New York, even colleagues say that the prosecution and media scrutiny have damaged him beyond repair.
Another poll yesterday, by Ipsos, found that 51 per cent do not think that “DSK”, as he is known, has any future in politics. Forty-two per cent believe that he does.
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Benoît Hamon, a senior MP and Socialist party spokesman, said that Mr Strauss-Kahn’s arrival in the presidential campaign “is the least likely of hypotheses”. He added: “When you have lived through an ordeal like that, [running for president] is not the thing that is uppermost in your mind.”
It is thought more likely that “DSK” may back Martine Aubry, 60, the party leader, with the prospect of becoming her Prime Minister if she unseats Mr Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential run-off. Ms Aubry, an uninspiring campaigner, only threw her hat into the ring last week, three days before the New York case crumbled. Her chief opponent is François Hollande, a former party leader and Strauss-Kahn adversary who had always been deemed a lightweight. He came into his own after Mr Strauss-Kahn’s arrest and now leads the opinion polls ahead of the primary vote in October, but an Aubry-Strauss-Kahn “ticket” would likely defeat him.
Mr Sarkozy has banned his team from saying anything about the case, but privately the President has written off Mr Strauss-Kahn as a potential opponent. The former IMF chief would certainly be exposed to further scrutiny of his sexual behaviour if he entered the campaign. The prospect of possible prosecution for attempted rape would seem to rule out any attempt.
As well as the scrutiny of his sex life, Mr Strauss-Kahn has also been hurt by details of his extravagant lifestyle, which is financed by Anne Sinclair, his heiress wife. There are signs that women in particular are not ready to back a man depicted in French media recently as a sex addict.
“He is damaged so badly now, he won’t be able to recover in the minds of voters, especially women voters,” said Sylvie Kauffmann, a former Editor of Le Monde. “I would not vote for him now, but I would have before.”