Is Dominique Strauss-Kahn The Great Seducer – or a Liar?

If Dominique Strauss-Kahn hadn’t got himself involved in a sexual encounter with a hotel chamber maid in New York he would now be well placed to win elections in France and become French President.

But now there are suspicions that he arranged for prostitutes to attend an orgy in France. His lawayer claimed he did not know the women were prostitutes because at the orgy, “Nobody had any clothes on, so how can you tell if a woman is a prostitute?”

Back in New York, DSK as he is known, does not deny that a sex act took place between him and the chamber maid. He can’t, DNA evidence proved that it did. In fact the whole episode sounds like a mix of CSI New York and a third rate film. The leading French Politician has a record of controversial sex encounters. He almost lost his top job at the IMF following accusations from a female colleague. 

A woman who visited him in his office in Paris compared consensual sex with him to being attacked by an aroused chimpanzee. Her daughter, who also had an encounter with him says she wants to see him in court on rape charges.

On French TV where he was interviewed by a friend of his wife, a former TV star, DSK admitted to a “moral fault.” But he totally denied that there was any violence involved – or that money changed hands.

Which means he must have persuaded Nafissautou Diallo, the chambermaid who is around 30 years younger than him and who he had never seen before – to perform a sex act on him – within minutes of her coming into his room to clean it. For free and of her own free will.

Well, such things do happen. Most often in porn films and in the imagination of travelling businessmen. The judge in the New York court did not believe her version of events, that she was attacked, because she changed her story and had some history herself.

What is certain is that DSK had the best legal team money can buy and she did not. He is a high profile international executive leading one of the world’s most important financial institutions. She is not. He has many friends in very high places. She has none.

The outright winner of this whole affair is French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Strauss-Kahn would have run against him in the Presidential election and the polls said he would win easily. Sarkozy is still unpopular and fighting for his career but there isn’t a challenger with the charisma and experience of DSK in sight. In a TV debate some time ago he made Sarkozy look third rate.

Even now there are many who say Strauss-Kahn could still beat Sarkozy. The French have a relaxed attitude to sexual fidelity and may even admire his macho attitudes.

But the biggest question of all remains, is he the great seducer, able to win women over with a snap of his fingers? Or is he a lucky liar?