Dominique Strauss-Kahn will fly home to a France divided over his reputation

Supporters declare ex-IMF head blanchi – whitened – after sex assault charges dropped, while others believe him tarnished The spectacular collapse of the rape case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn has prompted a bout of soul-searching in France amid fresh debate over how clean the former presidential hopeful has emerged from his American “ordeal”. As Strauss-Kahn prepared to collect his passport from police in New York, friends and supporters declared him blanchi – literally whitened – cleared and vindicated after accusations that had blackened his name and stymied his attempt to become the next president of France in 2012. Others, even those from the traditional left, believe that the Socialists’ one-time “providential man” will fly home less blanchi and more a grubby shade of grey. Commentators veered between outrage at DSK being paraded in handcuffs after his arrest in May and admiration for the US justice system dealing with the case rapidly and letting him go. Philosopher Daniel Salvatore Schiffer, a Strauss-Kahn defender, described the court’s decision as “courageous and honest” and said it had allowed the emergence of “if not the truth, which we will probably never know … but at least impartiality.” But Le Monde pointed out that Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was forced to quit as head of the International Monetary Fund, had not been “totally whitened” as the case had been dropped because of a lack of witnesses or proof that the “hasty sexual relations” between Strauss-Kahn and chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo were forced or consensual. On the eve of the Socialist party’s summer conference in the seaside town of La Rochelle, where six rival candidates for the presidential nomination will gather this weekend, some felt the return of the left’s former champion was an unwelcome distraction. Most of his supporters are now backing other candidates, including frontrunners François Hollande and Martine Aubry. Hollande has spoken of Strauss-Kahn’s economic expertise being “useful to his country” but nobody is seriously suggesting the rules of the primary election be altered to allow him to stand. Le Monde believed events in New York had put paid to Strauss-Kahn’s 2012 presidential ambitions, having “lifted a veil on aspects of his personality, his relations with women and with money”. “Like most French male politicians he felt protected by our tradition of respect for private matters,” it wrote, adding that he was the “victim of his own carelessness”. An editorial by essayist Pascal Bruckner in Le Monde, headlined “The DSK affair reveals a sad image of America”, highlights the cultural chasm spanning French views of sex and relationships and those of “Les Anglo-Saxons”. Bruckner recounts a sheriff on a Florida beach ordering him to cover his naked two-year-old daughter, as an example of the US’s “problem with sex”, which he describes as “twisted puritanism” resulting from the alliance of “feminism and the Republican right”. “We have lots of things to learn from our American friends, but certainly not the art of love,” he concludes, without explaining what a “precipitated sexual relationship” in a hotel suite – consensual or not – has to do with the Gallic view of sex as a genteel, graceful and private game. France’s national philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy, who outraged many with a string of outbursts in which he described the treatment of his friend in America as “utterly grotesque” because he was “not some commoner”, was equally outspoken. In an extraordinary interview with Nice Matin newspaper he described the chambermaid’s defence as “a masquerade” and said her lawyer had “reached the summits of obscenity”. French headlines – including DSK – Whitened; Nafissatou’s Lies; and Strauss-Kahn: His Nightmare Summer – have contrived to portray Strauss-Kahn as the victim of a mendacious, money-grabbing woman and a foreign legal system. A front page cartoon in Le Monde after Diallo’s lawyer’s launched a civil suit against Strauss-Kahn showed her vacuuming bank notes from DSK’s pockets. The affair also led to qualms about Strauss-Kahn and his heiress wife Anne Sinclair’s “gauche caviar” lifestyle. That they were paying more than £30,000 a month for a Manhattan townhouse, £170,000 a month for detectives and lawyers and had produced more than £3.5m in bail guarantees sat uneasily with some Socialists. Another stain yet to be blanchi is the attempted rape investigation Strauss-Kahn faces in France. Journalist and writer Tristane Banon claims he assaulted her when she went to interview him in 2003 accusing him of behaving like a “rutting chimpanzee” , allegations his lawyers have dismissed as “fantasy”. “Sex, lies and a case dismissal,” wrote the tabloid France Soir. “But DSK hasn’t yet completely finished with the justice system.” Only two people know what happened in the Sofitel suite in May and the lives of both have been sullied. Dominique Strauss-Kahn France Le Monde New York United States Kim Willsher guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 24, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.