Apart from other issues, the likely identity of the next IMF head was on everyone's lips, writes RUADHÁN MAC CORMAIC
AS WORLD leaders played out the rituals of international summitry in Deauville over the past two days – grinning for family photographs, making awkward small talk across language barriers and skipping from one global problem to another – it was hard not to feel the ghost of one high-profile absentee hanging over the seaside town.
This G8 summit was expected to be Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s last major engagement as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before his anticipated resignation next month to contest the French socialist party’s presidential primary. One of the intriguing subplots was to have been the tussle for ascendancy between him and President Nicolas Sarkozy, the man he would challenge for the Élysée Palace next year.
Instead, Strauss-Kahn was under house arrest in New York preparing to defend himself against charges of sexual assault and attempted rape.
His resignation came just before, not after, the summit, and his political ambitions are in shreds.
Sarkozy had kept a studied silence on l’affaire DSK until yesterday, when he was asked by a journalist whether it had embarrassed France.
“I didn’t know Dominique Strauss-Kahn was representing France,” Sarkozy shot back.
After pausing, he remarked that the case was so “sad” that political leaders would do well to “take a step back” and keep their counsel. “Frankly, extremely shocking things have been said,” he added, without elaborating, and moved on.
Strauss-Kahn may have cast a shadow over Deauville, but the race to find his successor is already approaching the final stretch, if the public declarations of support for Christine Lagarde are a reliable gauge.
The appointment was not officially on the agenda, but it came up repeatedly on the margins. Lagarde already has the support of the major EU capitals, and European officials were briefing yesterday that she is already virtually unbeatable – an impression that gained ground when Sarkozy hinted American support was likely to follow.
“I am not Obama’s spokesman and it’s not for me to announce his decision,” Sarkozy said after meeting the US president. But he had listened to Hillary Clinton’s tribute to Lagarde on Thursday, he said, and “I have trouble imagining that they’re not in agreement.” Just as encouraging for Lagarde were reports from Russia quoting prime minister Vladimir Putin saying her candidacy was “completely acceptable” and “very serious”.
The French president was in noticeably good humour yesterday. With his summit having gone smoothly, Strauss-Kahn out of the picture and Lagarde manoeuvred into pole position to succeed him, it wasn’t hard to see why.