Will Strauss-Kahn's arrest increase Le Pen's Presidential chances?

[Hannah Bell]

With the unpopularity of conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy...Strauss-Kahn and neo-fascist candidate Marine Le Pen had emerged as the leading candidates in the 2012 elections. The international media are increasingly concerned that Strauss-Kahn’s arrest will likely eliminate him from the race and strengthen Le Pen’s chances. Speaking on I-Télé television, Le Pen said Strauss-Kahn was “definitively discredited” as a candidate.

The Guardian commented that “the damage of the DSK (Dominique Strauss-Kahn) affair will weaken the left, and the beneficiary will not be the ruling UMP party. Marine Le Pen…was quick to blast DSK as a symbol of a discredited old political class. Both as a political ‘outsider’ and as a woman in politics, Le Pen could gain most from the scandal.”

Several French politicians suggested that Strauss-Kahn was the target of a conspiracy, either an attempt by the Sarkozy government to discredit its main rival or a move by US authorities displeased with his financial policies as IMF chief. Michèle Sabban, the vice president of the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, and a member of Strauss-Kahn’s faction inside the PS, said she believed there was an “international plot” against him.

Several politicians from the Union for a Popular Majority (UMP), the ruling conservative party in France, have come out in support of the accusations against Strauss-Kahn. UMP deputy Jacques Myard said, “Now the facts are proven and we must look reality in the face. Those who speak of a plot or conspiracy should stick to reason. Today the masks are falling and many established details are coming to the surface.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/kahn-m17.shtml

[Hardrada]

1. The French may decide they need new blood and new ideas

but it is questionable how far right they will go.

[seabeyond]

2. well, damn, the pig should not have tried to force an unwilling women s takes were high. nt