Gang-of-four had skilfully paved presidential path

A tight communications campaign has been derailed by the charges facing the ex-IMF chief

THEY WERE considered one of the most formidable public relations teams in France, the authors of a strategy that had brought Dominique Strauss-Kahn to the cusp of securing his party’s nomination for the presidency.

Known to the media as “the gang of four” and to some in the Socialist Party as “the firm”, they formed a praetorian guard around DSK, skilfully preparing the ground for his presidential campaign with carefully placed leaks and interviews that kept his poll numbers rising and his name firmly in the public mind.

All four – Stéphane Fouks, Gilles Finchelstein, Ramzi Khiroun and Anne Hommel – are employed by Euro RSCG, the fifth-largest communications company in the world. The most senior is Fouks, a close confidant with huge influence in Paris (14 of the CAC40 companies have contracts with him), who advised the former International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director on the euro-zone crisis and domestic politics. Fouks recruited the other three to Euro RSCG: Finchelstein’s role was that of scriptwriter and number-cruncher, analysing poll results and plotting electoral scenarios, while Khiroun and Hommel looked after relationships with journalists and Parisian powerbrokers.

Khiroun is also an adviser to Arnaud Lagardère, who owns Paris Match, Elle, Le Journal du Dimancheand the radio station Europe 1.

The influence of the “gang of four” has long been a source of irritation among some of Strauss-Kahn’s socialist party colleagues, who believe they exacerbate his vulnerabilities: a flashy lifestyle, neglect of the parliamentary party, distance from the working class. When DSK was lampooned earlier this month over a photograph showing him stepping out of a €120,000 Porsche, socialist figures pointed out that the car belonged to Khiroun. “If Dominique stands, he will be the socialist candidate – not the Euro RSCG candidate,” party leader Martine Aubry said recently.

But by far the most important of Strauss-Kahn advisers is his wife, Anne Sinclair. Since they married in 1991, when DSK was a relatively little-known chair of a parliamentary committee, Sinclair has shown him unwavering support. From a wealthy Parisian family, Sinclair was the respected anchor of a politics programme on TF1 television until her husband became finance minister and she stepped down. The couple are famously close. During the controversy over her husband’s affair with a subordinate at the IMF in 2008, Sinclair wrote “We love each other as much as we did on day one.”

When news of Strauss-Kahn’s arrest broke, Sinclair issued a statement in Paris saying she didn’t believe “for one second the accusations made against my husband”. Sinclair has flown to New York and yesterday attended her husband’s bail hearing. The “gang of four” have not been taking telephone calls this week.