Dominique’s Sexual Krach

Well, that’s probably what you get for playing with fire. Dominique Strauss-Kahn is now potentially out of the French presidential race, after months of short parading sessions in the wet cobbled streets of Paris, nagging the media and the electorate by refusing to admit he was going to run for the 2012 presidential elections. The 62-year-old IMF managing director has been arrested by the New York Police Department for allegedly sexually harassing a maid, half his age, in a New-York hotel.

This does not completely come out of the blue, as sexual incidents seem to be DSK’s trademark. In 2008, he had been publicly criticised for having an extra-marital sexual relationship with Piroska Nagy, a former IMF Africa division manager. His wife, Anne Sinclair, a French born American journalist and important figure in France, had reacted to the sad news with composure, showing to the overwhelming press that the incident would not disrupt their couple. On the more professional side, it was shown by an internal IMF investigation that Mrs Nagy had not received any ‘special treatment’ along with her special treat. The IMF’s reaction, in face of no illegal evidence, was thus mild but sufficient for Mr. Strauss Kahn to understand his lesson. Apparently not.

The news has spread like wild fire, and reactions from political figures in France are much awaited, as DSK was France’s electorate favourite candidate for the 2012 presidential election. Some have already admitted their stupefaction, and the official message given in France is to wait for the verdict, and to respect the presumption of innocence. Social networks such as Facebook or Twitter are now host to numerous puns and jokes about the recent inculpation of the French Socialist party informal leader. “Sodominique” is only one of the many nicknames he is given. After going mental, he is now going viral.
While Martine Aubry is the elected leader of the Socialist Party, Dominique Strauss Kahn has recently been one of its major influent figures. And although more than a thousand kilometres away from the “Solferino street” – where the Socialist Party’s headquarters is located -, DSK’s shadow has been looming for more than a year over the presidential election race. Some analysts claimed that the distance, ironically, made him look more appealing to the French electorate.

Ranting apart, although this incident makes DSK lose a considerable amount of credibility both to the IMF’s and the French electorate’s eyes, it should not entirely impede upon his capabilities as senior economist, and potential presidential candidate. Justice shall be pronounced, hoping the 32 year old New-York hotel maid receives a generous compensation for a certainly traumatic experience, if the alleged deed is verified. DSK’s lawyers have already pleaded innocent to the accusations, which could potentially thicken the compensation if they are found to be true.

But this incident undoubtedly highlights a certain malaise in the top French politician. Some medias are going to seriously turn him into a ‘sexual threat’ to humanity, as comedian Stephane Guillon had previously done in 2008 on the radio, pretending to prepare alarms and sirens for all female staff working in the studios, an hour before the arrival of DSK in the building for an interview. But this would be unfair treatment. The last thing France, or Europe needs, is to become like the United States, preaching the necessity of the preservation of their private spheres and their intimacy under liberal dogma, whilst judging public figures on what occurs on their living room couch.

Although the degree is different, how is cheating on his wife going to make Tiger Woods any less liable to hit a tiny white ball with a sand-wedge? In the same way, how is sexually harassing someone going to make DSK less liable to understanding figures and numbers? Of course he probably needs a rest, and the incident is certainly a proof of some mental – and physical – discomfort.

If people consider this to be a decisive game-changer in their electoral decision, no one can take that thought away from them, and DSK knows he has lost a solid chance of becoming the next French president anyway. But I beg the media, and I beg the people not to oblige him to stand upfront of an assembly of haters, proud but regretful, left hand on the bible and right up and out, and to oblige him to recognise errors that he has committed in his private life; because it is his private life. If we start choosing leaders on whether their image is worth being upheld as morning colours of a flag in our front yard, we switch our mode of selecting authoritative figures from a rational one, based on known competences, to a charismatic one, known to have propped up dictators that you wish you hadn’t invited to climb the pole of your front yard.