Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund is an incorrigible seducer whose weakness for women could fatally scupper his presidential ambitions, a new book has claimed.
Henry Samuel in Paris
09 May 2010
The leader French Socialist and former finance minister is considered perhaps the only politician in a position to beat President Nicolas Sarkozy should he run against him in elections in 2012. But according to the book - said to be written by a close female aide - his penchant for the opposite sex could knock him out of the race even before it starts.
The book claims the 61-year-old Mr Strauss-Kahn – married to Anne Sinclair, a famous French TV presenter - has had a string of extra-marital affairs and that photographs exist of him coming out of a wife-swapping club.
Frédéric Lefebvre, a Sarkozy adviser, boasted in 2007 that he had seen photographs of DSK, as the French call him that would wreck any presidential bid. "He wouldn't last a week," Mr Lefebvre said. "We'll circulate them." The book, Secrets of a Presidential Contender, is by an anonymous French author calling herself Cassandre, and who claims to be in DSK's inner circle of advisers.
She writes: "He is always on the hunt for new women.
"He is a pleasure seeker. Like all great political animals, he has trouble controlling himself.
"His eye for women is sharp as a laser. When he enters a cafe, an office or any public place, the ritual is the same.
"He does a little survey, turning his head almost imperceptibly to the left, then to the right, while carrying on talking. It lasts only a few seconds, just enough time to evaluate his chances.
"After identifying his prey, he bombards them with text messages, usually with the opening salvo 'I want you'.
"He is direct and makes no concessions."
Mr Sarkozy – not known for his monastic tendencies - is even said to have warned DSK about his weakness for women before he left to run the IMF in New York.
"Over there they don't joke about this sort of thing. Your life will be passed under a magnifying glass. Avoid taking the lift alone with interns.
France cannot permit a scandal," the president is quoted as warning him.
But within weeks, DSK was accused of showing favouritism to Piroska Nagy, a Hungarian economist in the fund's Africa department, with whom he had conducted a brief affair.
One of DSK's advisers is said to have exclaimed: "But you've only been here a month!"
Mrs Nagy later declared: "I believe that man (DSK) has a problem." His wife forgave him on her blog and he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
However, the author claims the IMF affair may only be the tip of the iceberg, quoting French actress Danielle Evenou as saying: "Who hasn't been cornered by Dominique Strauss-Kahn?" She tells of another female Socialist MP who claims she makes sure she is never alone in a room with him.
Tristane Banon, a writer, claims she had to fend Mr Strauss-Kahn off with kicks and punches when he invited her to a meeting in a room furnished with a double bed and a television.
When he turned up for a radio interview in France last year, the house comedian advised female staff to wear long garments to avoid "awakening the beast".
Some French commentators suggest DSK approved the book to pre-empt any further revelations as he considers entering the presidential race.
A recent poll suggested he would win the Socialist party's presidential primaries and go on to narrowly beat Mr Sarkozy in a run-off.
But Manuel Valls, a fellow Socialist, is quoted in the book as saying: "Even in a country so famously relaxed about adultery, this women business could bring him down in mid-flight."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7701145/Dominique-Strauss-Khan-in-sex-book-claims.html 
