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Geopolitics

Strauss-Kahn Case: France's Socialist Party In Upheaval (Again) With New Doubts About Accuser

The Socialist party primary to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 is in full swing. Politicians react to sudden news that Dominique Strauss-Kahn may be back in the running.

A cover image after Strauss-Kahn arrest (seamus_walsh)
A cover image after Strauss-Kahn arrest (seamus_walsh)

Worldcrunch NEWS BITES

PARIS - All of France is abuzz Friday with news of the overnight story by the New York Times reporting that the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn was "on the verge of collapse." The U.S. newspaper reported that prosecutors had growing doubts about the credibility of the New York hotel maid who levelled the accusations of attempted rape against Strauss-Kahn, a prominent French Socialist Party politician. DSK, as he's often referred to, was forced to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund in the wake of his arrest in May.

Among other reactions, the potentially dramatic reversal of fortune prompted immediate upheaval in France's Socialist Party, where many had earlier counted on Strauss-Kahn as the best hope to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency in 2012. Since his arrest, others have joined the primaries and some formerly diehard Strauss-Kahn supporters shifted allegiances as his candidacy was all but certainly dashed. But could the political chess match shift again if he is exonerated in the coming hours or days?

Socialist Party head Martine Aubry, who just announced this week that she would enter the primaries, told French TV channel i>Télé : "This news make me immensely happy and I think about his family." Aubry added on Twitter: "I hope with all my heart that American justice will unveil all the truth and get Dominique Strauss Kahn out of this nightmare."

Lionel Jospin, a former Socialist prime minister, said it was premature to talk about Dominique Strauss-Kahn returning to France to enter the race to challenge Sarkozy. "It's too soon to transform into politics such dramatic news that keeps changing before our eyes," said Jospin. "He is the first one who'll have to make a decision after this personal shock. Then the Socialists and their representatives will have to decide."

Read original French article in full by Silvain Courage

photo - seamus_walsh

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Society

The Beast Among Us: Why Femicides Are Every Man's Responsibility

Why does the femicide of Giulia Cecchettin shake Italy but speaks to us all? Argentine journalist Ignacio Pereyra looks at what lies behind femicides and why men must take more responsibility.

photo of a protest with men in the foreground pointing fingers

At the Nov. 25 rally in Ravenna, Italy against violence against women

Fabrizio Zani/ANSA via ZUMA
Ignacio Pereyra

-Essay-

ATHENS — Are you going to write about what happened in Italy, Irene, my partner, asks me. I have no idea what she's talking about. She tells me: a case of femicide has shaken the country and has been causing a stir for two weeks.

As if the fact in itself were not enough, I ask what is different about this murder compared to the other 105 women murdered this year in Italy (or those that happen every day around the world).

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We are talking about a country where the expression "fai l'uomo" (be a man) abounds, with a society so prone to drama and tragedy and so fond of crime stories as few others, where the expression "crime of passion" is still mistakenly overused.

In this context, the sister of the victim reacted in an unexpected way for a country where femicide is not a crime recognized in the penal code, contrary to what happens, for example, in almost all of Latin America.

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