Strauss-Kahn release stuns France

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Dominique Strauss-Kahn's release from house arrest has stunned French politicians, the public and press, who wonder whether he can emerge clean from a sex crime case and return to the presidential race.

Fresh doubts over the credibility of his accuser reignited the story of the decade this weekend, beating the Monaco royal wedding and the start of the Tour de France as the top topic of dinner-table chatter.

Claims that the Guinean hotel maid who accuses him of trying to rape her lied to police, and was recorded discussing with a drug-dealer the possibility of getting money out of Strauss-Kahn, opened a new act in the drama.

"I'm going from one astonishment to another," said Francois Bayrou, leader of a centre-right minority party.

"Only a Hollywood scriptwriter could have imagined such a story."

Strauss-Kahn, a powerful French politician who was head of the IMF global lender until the scandal hit, walked free and untagged from house arrest on Friday pending his next court appearance after a judge heard the latest claims.

Television pictures of him walking smart and smiling from a New York courthouse contrasted with the walk of shame by an unshaven and handcuffed suspect that had shocked France in the days after his arrest on May 14.

"This is a complete reversal. The idea that the case may be dismissed is incredible," Sabine de Marigny, 44, a fashion designer, told AFP in a Paris street.

"This affair has prompted women to speak out," said Marguerite, 37, a marketing manager.

"I hope that won't burn out quickly."

The sordid and violent nature of the accusations - chasing the maid around his hotel suite, grabbing her vagina and forcing her to give him oral sex - had prompted mourning for France's image in the world.

Despite all this, a poll published by Harris Interactive on Sunday showed a majority of 49 per cent of French people now approved of Strauss-Kahn returning to politics, with 45 per cent opposed.

Previous polls had showed that 60 per cent of French people believe the sex assault claims were a set-up to bring down Strauss-Kahn, previously the favourite to beat President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's election.

Strauss-Kahn's political career had nevertheless been widely declared over after the scandal, which shook up his opposition Socialist Party and prompted its leader Martine Aubry to declare that she would run for president.

Friday's court hearing left the Socialist campaign to beat Sarkozy wide open, and many in France no longer knowing what to think, after weeks of soul-searching about sex and sexism in French public life.

"The DSK affair allowed us to shed light on and ask questions about our morals - perhaps even to change them," wrote senior editor Olivier Jay in the Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

"It is up to us not to make the media stoop low even when the public seems to demand it, and to reserve the right to simply say: We do not know."

The doubts cast on the maid's case prompted calls by some Socialists for the party's candidate-selection process to be extended to allow Strauss-Kahn time to enter.

Francois Hollande, the party's former leader currently polling as favourite to beat Sarkozy in Strauss-Kahn's absence, said he was open to such a move, as did Segolene Royal, a former presidential challenger also running in 2012.

Royal on Friday had played down the prospect of Strauss-Kahn returning, but said on Saturday that she could accept such a move 'without difficulty'.