Back home: Strauss-Kahn arrives in French capital
PARIS - September 4, 2011
New York prosecutors later dropped their case against
Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund,
because of questions about the maid's credibility.
But the affair cost Strauss-Kahn his job at the helm of the IMF
and exposed his personal life to worldwide scrutiny that has
stained his image and left the French divided over what he should
do next. His high-profile return home Sunday reflects how large he
looms here.
Smiling and waving silently, he stepped off an Air France flight
Sunday at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport a different man from the
one who, just four months ago, had been the pollsters' favorite to
beat President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's presidential
elections.
Few expect Strauss-Kahn to return to French politics soon - his
Socialist Party is already in the throes of their presidential
primary - but his supporters have been eagerly awaiting his return
after a monthslong legal drama in the U.S. that they saw as
unfairly hostile to him.
Jack Lang, a former Socialist government minister and a neighbor
of Strauss-Kahn, told The Associated Press that his friend would
play a "very important role, not necessarily in the campaign, but
in the life of France, the life of Europe."
Lang said that the French people will eventually forget the
scandal. "What scandal? In my eyes, he is innocent."
As head of the IMF, Strauss-Kahn was widely praised for his
management of the institution and its role in the European debt
crisis - an expertise some in France may covet as the problems of
deficit and debt deepen.
Residents of Sarcelles, a working class Paris suburb where
Strauss-Kahn used to be mayor, were largely enthusiastic and
empathetic about his return.
"I'm happy for him. It's the end of an ordeal. Now ... we
should leave him alone a little bit," resident Laurent Giaoui told
The Associated Press.
But a prominent member of Sarkozy's conservative UMP party,
Xavier Bertrand, shrugged off Strauss-Kahn's appearance in Paris.
"Like many French people, I have lots of others worries in my
head," he said on Europe-1 radio. "I have a hard time imagining"
Strauss-Kahn back in politics, he said.
Strauss-Kahn flew in to Paris from New York's JFK Airport early
Sunday and gave a brief wave upon leaving the arrivals hall.
Pushing a luggage cart, he did not speak to the large crowd.
His wife, respected former TV personality Anne Sinclair, was at
his side, beaming widely. Riot police protected him and the area.
The two then drove to one of their homes, on Paris' tony Place des
Vosges. The crush of reporters was so thick that Strauss-Kahn had
trouble reaching and opening his front door.
The last time he tried to take an Air France flight out of JFK,
Strauss-Kahn was pulled out of first class minutes before takeoff
by police. They were investigating the maid's claim that hours
earlier, Strauss-Kahn had forced her to perform oral sex and tried
to rape her.
He quit his job, spent almost a week in jail, then six weeks of
house arrest and nearly two more months barred from leaving the
country before Manhattan prosecutors dropped the case last month,
saying they no longer trusted the maid, Guinean immigrant
Nafissatou Diallo.
Diallo is continuing to press her claims in a lawsuit.
Strauss-Kahn denies the allegations.
Strauss-Kahn faces another investigation in France based on
accusations by French novelist Tristane Banon, who says he tried to
rape her during an interview in 2003. He calls the claim
"imaginary."
Banon's mother, Anne Mansouret, told the AP that Strauss-Kahn's
return "is a good thing for my daughter's complaint because he
will have to answer to police."
Banon says she didn't file a complaint after the incident
because her mother, a regional Socialist official, urged her not
to.
Mansouret, who now says she regrets that decision, called it
"profoundly indecent" that Strauss-Kahn's homecoming Sunday was
like that of a "star."
The AP does not name people who report being sexually assaulted
unless they agree to be identified or come forward publicly, as
Diallo and Banon have done.
Strauss-Kahn, known in France by his initials DSK, is also
dubbed a "great seducer" by French commentators for his
reputation for sexual adventures.
That reputation - and France's overall attitude toward keeping
politicians' private lives private - came under scrutiny after
Strauss-Kahn's arrest. Many called for more openness about
questionable private behavior that might reflect on a politician's
public life.
The Socialist Party is now in a fierce campaign for primaries
next month to choose its candidate for April and May presidential
elections. The front-runners, while relieved that the New York case
was dropped, do not appear keen for Strauss-Kahn to make a
comeback.
Strauss-Kahn, an eloquent economist and former finance minister,
still has many fans in France, and there remains a small chance he
could play a role in the presidential campaign. Strauss-Kahn
himself has remained silent about his political plans.
In welcoming Strauss-Kahn back Sunday, many French people
expressed concern for his wife - who was more famous in France than
her husband before they married 20 years ago - and what she's been
through in recent months.
One supporter belted out an ode to Strauss-Kahn in a performance
at the Paris airport Sunday morning, accompanied by a Verdi opera
played on a portable stereo, before police officers asked him to
stop.
"Dominique! Dominique!," shouted Gregoire Vandevelde, who said
he was a former student of Strauss-Kahn's at a prestigious economic
institute. "He is extremely brilliant, full of humor and very
competent, warm with his students," Vandevelde said.
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Angela Charlton in Paris, Catherine Gaschka in Sarcelles, and
Ted Shaffrey and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this
report.