PRESS REVIEW | 16.05.2011

European press review: The damage is done

 

Strauss-Kahn's arrest sent shockwaves throughn France

The arrest of IMF chief and potential French presidential candidate Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sexual assault charges has alerted editorial writers across Europe.

 

Rome's Corriere della Sera called the accusations "a deadly blow" for Strauss-Kahn personally and for his political ambitions. "What is even more serious and devastating is the fact that the embarrassing arrest of a leader with global responsibilities is harmful to France's image, which Strauss-Kahn embodies to a certain degree." Neither France, nor the French leftists nor the euro can afford to have to tackle such a delicate situation, the Italian daily wrote.

"What is true and what is false must be clarified," Paris' Le Figaro cautioned, adding that one thing was already a certainty: "Dominique Strauss-Kahn will not be France's next president."  The paper said that, even if Strauss-Kahn were proven innocent, the damage had been done.

Austria's Der Standard came to the same conclusion and pointed out that incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy will likely benefit from the scandal. "Even if the probe against [Strauss-Kahn] were discontinued, his candidature for the [presidency] is as good as a thing of the past. Dominique Strauss-Kahn gives the impression of a man who does not have a grip on himself. To the delight of another man: Nicolas Sarkozy." All of a sudden, the paper concluded, the current president is again the favorite to be his own successor.

The Basler Zeitung noted that while many reports underline the presumption of innocence, US legal procedures will result in Strauss-Kahn having to put the brakes on his ambitions for the French presidency, effectively taking him out of the race. "Again, everything is possible during the Socialist Party's primaries in October and certainly for the presidential polls in May 2012," the Swiss paper wrote.

El Pais came to the same conclusion, writing that it is more than likely that Strauss-Kahn's political career is over in the wake of his arrest in New York. The Spanish paper pointed out that the grave accusations of sexual assault have not only rocked the foundations of French domestic policies ahead of presidential elections next year, but also affected the stability of the IMF as the most important guardian of the global economic system.

Also with an eye on possible implications for the IMF, Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeinecommented that the organization would survive a change in office, but: "No matter how the current case turns out, Strauss-Kahn's reputation in the IMF is likely to be sufficiently ruined to put him under immense pressure." President Sarkozy, on the other hand, can hardly be unhappy to be rid of a rival who opinion polls predicted would have won the presidency next year, the paper noted.

Author: Dagmar Breitenbach
Editor: Nancy Isenson

 

 

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