In pledge to IMF, Strauss-Kahn drops presidential run
Saturday, 22 September 2007
WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (AFP): Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former French finance minister widely expected to be tapped to head the IMF, pledged yesterday to stay for the entire five-year term, effectively renouncing a 2012 run for the presidency.
The reforms needed to preserve the International Monetary Fund "cannot take place overnight," he said.
"This task needs at least a five-year term to which I commit myself," he told the IMF executive board in a job interview at the financial institution's Washington headquarters, according to the text of his comments released by the IMF.
Strauss-Kahn was one of the three major Socialist candidates competing for the party's nomination for the French presidential election in May.
He lost his bid to Segolene Royal, who in turn was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy, a conservative.
The next French presidential election will be held in 2012, if the normal calendar is followed.
If Strauss-Kahn is chosen to head the IMF, as expected on September 28, he would have to resign at least a year before the election to win his party's nomination and campaign for the presidency.
Sarkozy himself put forward Strauss-Kahn for the IMF post, successfully lobbying European Union members for their support.
Strauss-Kahn, 58, earned praise in financial circles when he was finance minister in 1997-1999 under then-prime minister Lionel Jospin.
The reforms needed to preserve the International Monetary Fund "cannot take place overnight," he said.
"This task needs at least a five-year term to which I commit myself," he told the IMF executive board in a job interview at the financial institution's Washington headquarters, according to the text of his comments released by the IMF.
Strauss-Kahn was one of the three major Socialist candidates competing for the party's nomination for the French presidential election in May.
He lost his bid to Segolene Royal, who in turn was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy, a conservative.
The next French presidential election will be held in 2012, if the normal calendar is followed.
If Strauss-Kahn is chosen to head the IMF, as expected on September 28, he would have to resign at least a year before the election to win his party's nomination and campaign for the presidency.
Sarkozy himself put forward Strauss-Kahn for the IMF post, successfully lobbying European Union members for their support.
Strauss-Kahn, 58, earned praise in financial circles when he was finance minister in 1997-1999 under then-prime minister Lionel Jospin.