Strauss-Kahn, Dominic

Dominic Strauss-Caen was born on April 25, 1949 into a Jewish family in the suburbs of Paris, Neuilly-sur-Seine ^{[1] [2] [3]} . Father Gilbert Strauss-Kahn (1888-1992) - a lawyer, a specialist in tax law, is dedicated in the box of the Great East of France ^[4] . Mother, Jacqueline Fellus (1919-2006), journalist. Dominic spent part of his childhood in Morocco and Monaco . He studied economics and politics at the Paris Institute for Political Studies , where he earned degrees in public law and economics. In 1977 he became a professor of economics. He worked at the University of Nancy II (1977-1980), at the University of Paris X - Nanterre (1981-1991).

Beginning of a Political Career

While working at the Center for Socialist Learning, Research and Education, under the leadership of Jean-Pierre Schevenman, Strauss-Kahn made friends with Lionel Jospin . After the election of Francois Mitterrand as president in 1981, Strauss-Kahn began to actively participate in the activities of the Socialist Party , which was then led by Lionel Jospin, where he organized the section “Socialism and Judaism”. In the same year he was appointed to the party planning committee . In 1986, he was first elected to the National Assembly , where he became known for his heated debate with the then Minister of Finance, Pierre Beregovua .

Minister of Industry

In 1991, Strauss-Kahn became Minister of Industry in the Government of Edith Cresson and retained his position in the next cabinet of Pierre Beregovua until the cabinet fell after the devastating defeat of the left in the 1993 elections .

Following the defeat of the SPF in the elections, Strauss-Kahn led the SPF expert group created by Claude Allegre and supported by former Prime Minister Michel Rocard . In 1994, Renault director Raymond Levy invited him to an industrial group, the French industrial lobby in Brussels , in which Strauss-Kahn worked first as general secretary and later as vice president.

In addition, in 1993, Strauss-Kahn founded the law firm DSK Consultants and worked as a business lawyer. In 1995, he was elected mayor of Sarcelles and married television journalist Anne Sinclair .

Minister of Economics, Finance and Industry

In 1997, after the victory of the Socialists in the election, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin appointed Dominic Strauss-Kahn Minister of Economics, Finance and Industry, making him one of the most influential government ministers.

Strauss-Kahn launched a broad privatization campaign (e.g. France Telecom ), introduced a deregulation policy to support the R&D sector. As a result of its activities, the French economy has achieved good results in increasing GDP , employment and reducing public debt. This increased his authority and support, making him the leader of the reform group Socialism and Democracy. However, he was unable to prevent the introduction of the 35-hour workweek proposed by Martin Aubrey , the Minister of Social Affairs.

In 1999, he became involved in several financial scandals and resigned. He was later fully acquitted of all charges.

Resumption of Political Activity

In 2002, he was re-elected to the National Assembly from SPF. He is the leader of the Socialism and Democracy group in the SPF, which is the SPF wing focused on the market economy. In 2006, he tried to run for the presidency of France from the Socialist Party, but party members elected Segolen Royal as a candidate.

Head of the International Monetary Fund

In July 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed Strauss-Kahn for the post of managing director of the International Monetary Fund . In the media, this initiative was related to Sarkozy’s desire to weaken the SPF, the main opposition political party, after one of its leaders left the French politics (formerly another well-known socialist, Bernard Kouchner , became foreign minister in the Gaullist government, despite criticizing this step with parties to the management of SPF). However, Strauss-Kahn himself was not opposed to his transfer to an influential position on an international scale.

On July 10, 2007, the ministers of economics and finance of the European Union countries at the Brussels summit decided to nominate Strauss-Kahn as the single EU candidate for the post of IMF head. By tradition, this position is occupied by a representative of Europe . On September 28, 2007, he was elected Managing Director of the IMF.

May 18 ( May 19, European time) 2011 resigned ^{[5] [6] [7]} after being arrested on May 14 in New York on charges of attempted rape by a maid in a hotel (see below for details) before his term expires The powers of the head of the IMF remained two months.

After resignation

If during the 2006 elections Strauss-Kahn’s popularity in the party and country was relatively low, then working as IMF steward made him several years later one of the most famous figures not only in the country, but also in the world, which could allow him to succeed run for SPF as president of France in 2012. Sexual scandals prevented him from doing this.

October 18, 2013 Strauss-Kahn took over as chairman of the board of directors of Anatevka Bank from Luxembourg, with his arrival, the organization changed its name to “Lane, Strauss-Kahn and Partners” ^[8] .

On February 1, 2016, he became an independent member of the supervisory board of the Ukrainian bank Credit Dnepr, controlled by Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk ^[9] .

On April 3, 2011, at the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, Dominique Strauss-Kahn delivered a conceptual one and a half hour speech that produced the effect of an exploding bomb. In it, he stated that "the Washington consensus with its simplified economic ideas and recipes collapsed during the crisis of the world economy and was left behind." In Washington and Moscow, publicizing the causes of the crisis and speech were generally regarded as a challenge. Strauss-Kahn said that it was the implementation of the rules of the Washington Consensus, among which the desire for irresponsible budget spending and, as a result, high budget deficits, low economic growth, government participation in the economy, government control over financial markets, printing presses of Central banks and high taxes led to the global financial and economic crisis. From the point of view of Strauss-Kahn, in order to overcome the uncertainties of the post-crisis world, it is necessary to return to the principles of free-market economic policy both for the world community and for each individual state ^[10] .

First married in 1967 to Helene Dumas, who gave birth to three children. In 1984, he married Brigitte Guillemett, the mother of his fourth daughter.

He lived with journalist Ann Sinclair for 20 years. During the New York City maid rape scandal and pimping proceedings, Sinclair publicly acquitted her husband, but then stated that she had received information about the unworthy methods of influencing witnesses. In 2012, the marriage was dissolved. After the divorce, it turned out that the politician has an illegitimate child born in 2010.

In October 2017, he married 49-year-old Miriam L'Aufir, the owner of a small multimedia agency ^[11] .

Contact Subordinate, 2008

In October 2008, an investigation was launched because an employee who quit the IMF, who was Strauss-Kahn’s mistress, received an unusually generous severance pay. In an email to IMF staff, Strauss-Kahn expressed regret over this situation and called the connection with the employee a mistake on his part.

Bernard Kouchner : “All this happened exclusively at the wrong time. In addition, I ask myself the question: why did all this come up right now when we need Dominic Strauss-Kahn so much? I think there is some intention here ” ^[12] .

New York Hotel

Soon after his speech, on May 14, 2011, he was taken off the flight and arrested in New York on charges of sexual harassment of a 32-year-old Guinean native Nafissatou Diallo ^{[13] [14]} but was later released on bail $ 1 million and transferred to house arrest ^[15] . It is noteworthy that an attempt to issue bail before his resignation was refused.

On July 2, 2011, a New York court released Strauss-Kahn from house arrest in connection with the new circumstances of the case: materials that prove to the prosecutor’s office maid were lying to investigators, and there were also suspicions that the woman who accused Strauss-Kahn of rape set up everything ^[16] . The criminal case was dismissed. However, the maid and Strauss-Kahn filed civil suits against each other. An amicable agreement between them was concluded only in December 2012 ^[17] .

The Case of Pimping

In February 2012, Strauss-Kahn was detained in France in a case of pimping . According to investigators, the politician was involved in the creation of a criminal network that supplied prostitutes from the Carlton Hotel in Lille to various events and, in particular, to sex parties for dignitaries. Strauss-Kahn's lawyers claimed that he did not know that women attending the event were engaged in prostitution. The accused himself, speaking in court, explained that he participated in sex parties in order to restore strength after “saving the world” from financial crises. On June 12, 2015, the court acquitted Strauss-Kahn in the case of pimping ^[17] .

There are theories that explain Strauss-Kahn’s arrest by the desire to prevent him from participating in the French presidential election [1] , by clashes within the financial and political elite between supporters of preserving the dollar as a world currency and their opponents [2] and so on. These theories are quite popular among the general public interested in politics. The version that a potential candidate for the presidency of France was thus eliminated is shared by 57% of those surveyed by the CSA ^[18] . Strauss-Kahn himself ^{[19] [20]} held the same position. Putin, when he was Chairman of the Government, suggested that the sex scandal was a production staged by the American authorities ^{[21] [22]} . Thierry Meyssan in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda presented his version of what happened, suggesting that the scandal in New York was provoked in order to prevent Strauss-Kahn from “meeting ... in person with Colonel Gaddafi” (to discuss the fate of Libya's foreign exchange reserves) ^[23] .

See also Conspirological Hypotheses in the Strauss-Kahn Case .

In 2014, a feature film about the events in the life of Strauss-Kahn in 2011, Welcome to New York, produced by the USA and France (directed by Abel Ferrara), was released. The main role was played by Gerard Depardieu . D. Strauss-Kahn promised to sue the creators of the picture for defamation. ^[25]

• La flamme et la cendre , Grasset, 2002 ( ISBN 2-01-279122-0 )
• Lettre ouverte aux enfants d'Europe , Grasset, 2004 ( ISBN 2-246-68251-7 )

• Strauss-Kahn, Dominic - an article in the Lentapedia . year 2012.
• Socialist for the IMF
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced an investigation into its own director, Dominic Strauss-Kahn
• Dominic Strauss-Kahn - Crazy House
• Strauss-Kahn could become a victim of the intrigues of Putin and Sarkozy
• Evgeny Dodolev . “Unloved Vassal” // “ However ”: magazine. - Moscow, 2011. - No. 16 (80) . - S. 80 .