DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN is an innocent man until a court proves otherwise. But the spectacular fall from grace of the head of the International Monetary Fund and French presidential hopeful on sexual assault charges in New York has set off a political earthquake from which “DSK”, is likely to find it impossible to recover his standing.
They do justice differently in New York, as viewers of Law and Order SVUwill be well aware. Ahead of trial District Attorneys happily spell out detailed allegations on courtroom steps, manacled prisoners are paraded before cameras whether or not identity is at issue, the press interviews witnessses and dissects character and "form" of accuser and accused – he is alleged to have some – and guilt is often pronounced. And then the defence team gets to muddy the waters, leak alibis, dispute timelines. . .
What of jury prejudice? The Daily Newsyesterday disgracefully described DSK as a "naked pervert" in its page one intro, while the New York Sun, as others, wrote that "police detectives involved in questioning the victim . . . found her credible, consistent, and without signs of evasiveness". However, US judges, rightly or wrongly, take a more robust view than our own of their ability to redirect juries and undo pretrial publicity.
Strauss-Kahn’s fall will undoubtedly throw a spoke in the IMF’s attempt to maintain a seamlesss engagement with the EU bailout processes. He has played a welcome part in his four years at the helm reorientating the fund’s role, as he likes to put it, from monetary policeman to doctor to globalisation. His empathy with the euro project is likely to be particularly missed, not least because his departure is likely to reopen the vexed “consensus” that the fund must be led by a European.
France’s presidential election next year has been thrown wide open too. The Socialist Party, 16 years in opposition, has been left without a credible centrist candidate to take on President Sarkozy whose ratings show he risks being knocked out in the first round of voting. Polls had suggested he would come in third, a point or two behind Marine Le Pen of the Front National. Now with a weakened Socialist challenge, Le Pen might beat either of the mainstream parties to face down the other in the second round. As for DSK, he warned journalists privately a month ago that his presidential bid could be affected by three things, “money, women and my Jewishness”. Tempting fate, it seems, is also a problem.