Almost 50% of voters want Strauss-Kahn back

SOME 60% of left-leaning French voters want former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, whose high-profile trial on sexual assault charges could now collapse, to return to French politics, a poll released yesterday showed.

Among the general public, 49% want Strauss-Kahn to return to the French political scene while 45% are against it, a Harris Interactive poll of 1,000 French people aged 18 and over.

The poll was taken after Strauss-Kahn’s release from house arrest on Friday and news that questions had been raised about the credibility of his accuser.

Before his arrest on May 14 on charges of sexually assaulting a hotel cleaner in New York, Strauss- Kahn had been widely expected to challenge French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 elections and was the most popular among other possible contenders.

The poll also showed that while left-wing sympathisers see Strauss-Kahn returning to French politics, they are less sure about whether he should take part in the 2012 presidential race.

Only 51% of French leftists want the Socialist Party to postpone the July 13 deadline for registering candidacies in the primary to choose the party’s contender.

Among the wider population, 49% of those polled do not want the Socialist Party to postpone the deadline.

Strauss-Kahn’s next court appearance in New York will be for a July 18 hearing.

If the US justice system were to clear Strauss-Kahn’s name, he could still make a bid, as candidates have until mid-March to declare themselves for the April 22 election.