Dominique Strauss-Kahn has missed his Socialist party's filing deadline to run in October's presidential primary—not that he can't get around this if he wanted, but other Socialist candidates are now preparing themselves for a race that will likely not include the man who is charged with sexual assault by a hotel maid. Before his arrest, he was seen as a "strong favorite" to unseat Nicolas Sarkozy. Now, a recent poll showed that 65% of respondents in France opposed Strauss-Kahn's candidacy, while 74% didn't think he'll run at all.
This leaves François Hollande, close friend to Lionel Jospin, who lost to Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of the election in 2002, as the Socialist frontrunner. While Hollande is described as "squeaky clean" and "rather dumpy" by the Guardian, some believe that he knew the intimate details of the 2003 incident that is alleged to have occurred between writer Tristane Banon and Strauss-Kahn. Banon is seeking to have Strauss-Kahn prosecuted in France after she claimed the politician "opened my bra, tried to open my jeans…it ended very badly." Banon's mother, a Socialist party leader herself who is said to have quashed her daughter's allegations at the time, is claiming that Hollande knew of the attack but did nothing.
"I absolutely want to put an end to all these controversies, rumors and hawking," Hollande says. Also waiting in the wing as presidential hopefuls are Martine Aubry and Ségolène Royal, the latter lost to Sarkozy in 2007. The questions of whether or not Strauss-Kahn's case will be dismissed has forced his supporters to wait for a sign of his exoneration, while pols like Hollande press forward with their own ambitions. Strauss-Kahn could always run as an independent, and the Post reports that he would need 500 signatures by March of 2012 to do so.
