DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN held discussions with other senior French Socialist Party figures yesterday as competition intensified for the party’s nomination for next year’s presidential election.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, met party leader Martine Aubry and former finance minister Laurent Fabius in Paris in recent days and was expected to hold further meetings with his supporters.
Opinion polls show “DSK” is best placed to defeat President Nicolas Sarkozy, but so far he has refused to say whether he will leave his post in Washington early to return to domestic politics.
It is now widely believed inside the party that, barring a surge in support for one of his potential opponents, Mr Strauss-Kahn will declare himself a candidate for the primary after a G8 summit in Deauville in Normandy in late May – the last significant appointment in his IMF diary.
Nominations for the party contest close on June 28th and registered left-wing voters will choose the candidate in the autumn.
Precluded by IMF rules from speaking about domestic politics, DSK has left France guessing about his intentions for the past year. His supporters have been encouraged by recent polls, however, with the latest Ifop survey placing him as the only socialist capable of defeating Mr Sarkozy.
Any other socialist would be pushed into third place by National Front leader Marine Le Pen, the poll found.
With the help of his supporters and a public relations agency, Mr Strauss-Kahn has used media appearances on his regular visits to Paris to drop hints about his intentions. His wife, Anne Sinclair, told a French magazine she did not want him to seek a second term at the IMF, and he used a prime-time television interview in February to remind viewers of his left-wing credentials.
In recent weeks, however, Mr Strauss-Kahn has been presented with a new obstacle with an unexpected rise in public support for former party leader François Hollande. Mr Hollande lost out to Ségolène Royal, his then partner and mother of his four children, for the Socialist nomination in 2007, but has overhauled his image and mounted a slick campaign since declaring his candidacy earlier this month.
His steady rise in the polls has alarmed DSK’s supporters, as both men belong to the party’s social democratic camp and appeal to a similar constituency. In a 90-minute set-piece speech in a Paris suburb on Wednesday evening, Mr Hollande portrayed himself as the candidate of “stability, coherence and harmony” after the divisive Sarkozy years.
He also plans to visit Berlin, Brussels and Tunisia in the coming weeks and has promised, despite pressure from the Strauss-Kahn camp, that he will “go all the way to the end”. “Now is not the time for him (Hollande) to show off his biceps,” said Jean-Marie Le Guen, the deputy mayor of Paris and a noted DSK cheerleader.
A second complicating factor is the position of Ms Aubry, whose reputation has been enhanced by the party’s strong showing in recent cantonal elections. She and Mr Strauss-Kahn have agreed that they should not stand against one another, but her supporters in the party have been publicly urging her to run.
As well as Mr Hollande, three other candidates – Ms Royal, Manuel Valls and Arnaud Montebourg – have already declared for the primary.