The arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn left his country’s media in a French twist yesterday.
While French politicians demanded “prudence” until all the facts emerge, the scandal involving the International Monetary Fund chief dominated front pages and television news as pundits predicted it could destroy the Socialist Party’s chances at capturing the presidency next year.
An editorial in the Paris daily Libération titled “A Huge Waste” noted that if Strauss-Kahn is found guilty, his exit from the race would “[throw] dynamite on the entire campaign.”
The accusations come on the eve of a Socialist primary, and the latest polls show he is the front-runner.
Le Figaro, one of the nation’s largest dailies, used a photo essay to seemingly draw parallels between Strauss-Kahn and the sexual escapades of Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and former US President Bill Clinton.
The newspaper, which devoted nine stories on its Web page to the scandal, asked its readers to vote online on whether they thought Strauss-Kahn’s political career is over.
The weekly social democrat magazine Le Nouvel Observateur suggested in an editorial that darker forces may be at work amid the accusations, noting that “certain people are already speaking of a political trap.”
The paper said news of the alleged sexual assault first broke on Twitter in a posting from Jonathan Pinet, a young member of the Union for a Popular Movement, the party backing current French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Meanwhile, the main headline in the online version of Le Point, France’s most influential news magazine, asked its readers: “Who profits from the DSK Scandal?”
Strauss-Kahn, France’s ex-finance minister and a candidate in the 2006 Socialist presidential primaries, had been expected to resign his post as IMF chief and run in next year’s presidential elections.