Super Pres, DSK and the Bikini Babe - the magnificent three

We see him here. We see him there. We see him almost everybloodywhere. Sarkozy in Algeria - refusing to apologise for France’s colonial “misdeeds” (thanks for that particular interpretation go to al Jazeera). Sarkozy in Tunisia cosying up to reportedly one of the most “open” and “liberal” north African countries with (according to Human Rights Watch) an appalling human rights record. But we didn’t see him in the region’s other former French protectorate, Morroco. “Scheduling problems” according to Rabat, otherwise to be construed as being miffed that the tour had started in Algeria, and throwing a little hissy fit in protest.


Meanwhile back home he’s still helping to set the agenda for what’s hitting the headlines. This time around it’s with three magic letters. DSK.

No, not a French luxury goods brand but rather the commonly used, affectionate (?) abbreviation for former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He’s one of the so-called Socialist party’s “elephants” who went up against Segolene Royal for the presidential nomination and very reluctantly rallied behind her (knife in hand) afterwards.

We’re talking MAJOR political opponent for Sarkozy here – and a possible contender in the 2012 presidential race. So what does our divide and conquering/all embracing (take your pick) Mr S do? He puts DSK’s name forward as a candidate to replace the outgoing head honcho at the International Monetary Front – and quickly seals the agreement of all the other EU members….well apart from Britain, whose 101 dalmation namesake looked a bit taken aback at a press conference that the deal had been struck so quickly.

By tradition, the World Bank is traditionally headed by an American, while the IMF post is given to a European (although there are calls to change the system), so DSK looks like a shoe-in. And guess when his tenure would finish? 2012 – just in time for you know what.

DSK is a consummate French politician, complete with all the usual baggage. He “resigned” as a minister back in 1999 after he was suspected of corruption in two financial scandals (same old, same old here on the continent) although he was later completely acquitted. And then there was the incident of “the tape” – a kiss-and-tell recording exposing all the sleazy details of the Social Housing scams Chirac had been running while mayor of Paris. Somehow it found its way into DSK’s office, until police raided it.

Oh yes and let’s not forget that he was one of the architects of the 35-hour working week, which has single-handedly propelled this country into the economic powerhouse that it has become!

Hallelujah that he’s likely to be put in charge of deciding how all that lovely lolly is distributed to those that really need it. Does anyone else find it just a teensy bit frightening (and, given the state of the economy, odd) that the French will hold the purse strings of three of the world’s major financial institutions - IMF, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Central Bank – if his nomination is ratified, as well as top job at the WTO?

But the real political story at the moment is much more surprising; It’s Segolene in a bikini! The glossy weekly, Paris Match, snapped piccies of Ms Royal on the beach while on holiday and slapped them in its front cover. She tried unsuccessfully to stop them being printed, so now she’s fuming once again. And rightly so. The news coverage of the story is surprising in the sense that this country’s privacy laws are pretty stringent and usually respected. How, she asks, does a snapshot of her enjoying a private moment in a public place serve the anything other than national curiosity? Indeed in whose interest is it, other than the magazine’s circulation figures of course.

Her lawyers are suing the rag and have condemned the photos as “vulgar voyeurism”. Meanwhile the magazine’s defence is just risible, claiming that the holiday destinations of major personalities are a legitimate subject of information, particularly as Ms R is as the very heart of the news at the moment. Presumably because she’s trying to get those damned pictures banned.


Coming (too) soon…..”Talking about a velo-rution”