[/caption]Michael Cosgrove - It is impossible to describe the massive shock wave which slammed into France a few hours ago when news flashes interrupted programmes to announce that Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been formally charged and jailed without bail as a flight risk on charges of sequestration and serious sexual assault against a New York hotel chambermaid.
This was already the biggest news story in France for many a year but today's news has left the whole country almost speechless. I have spoken to friends who just cannot take it in. It's like a major earthquake just struck. One French politician summed up what France is feeling right now when she said "There's only one word I can think of, and it's one which characterizes French public opinion. That word is 'stupefaction.' This whole thing seems unreal..."
People were so numbed by this news that - contrary to what almost always happens on press article comment threads on breaking news - the threads got almost no attention for almost an hour. It was as if the whole country was moving in slow motion, unable to type, talk or take in anything.
"But why?" I can hear you asking. "After all he's charged with serious offenses!" Yes, but Anglo-Saxon countries are not France. And after this is all over France is going to change in big ways. Explanation.
It is no secret that the French press protects prominent personalities from public scrutiny. Most French people support that status-quo, saying that people's private lives are their own affair. But they didn't know until today how things are done elsewhere in the world. Famous French people almost never even get to court when they are accused of something. Even presidents. And nothing can be said about their misdoings and morals. The president decides who is to be protected and the press is instructed to protect them and not publish potentially damaging information.
This is why it was forbidden by law to call the Algerian war (late '50's - early 60's) a war until the 1990's. No mention of the torture either. No-one was ever charged. The press, even school books, referred to the Algerian War as 'The Events.' It was forbidden to report the drowning of 300 Muslims in the Seine in Paris in the early 60's by the police, and it's still impossible to get full details. No-one was ever charged. Mitterand had an illegitimate child who was protected by French Secret Services at taxpayer's expense without the public even being aware of her existence for many years. Political corruption allegations involving well known politicians almost never end up in court due to the legal loopholes which stall trials until finally, after ten years or more, a presidential exoneration from prosecution stops it all. The list is long.
This is why Dominique Strauss-Kahn's almost systematic sexual harassment of women he met - journalists, politicians, staff and others - was hardly mentioned in the press. And the public didn't care either.
But Dominique Strauss-Kahn has just made the fateful error of being accused of sexual assault in America and being caught by the American police. And being charged and put on remand. In America. And being filmed, dejected, tired and handcuffed, for the whole world to see. In America. And this is something that the French have never ever seen before.
All this began yesterday with press and public reaction being outraged that DSK could be treated as a common criminal!? Shameful!! It's a plot to get him!! But that changed this afternoon when they learned that this is not a joke. Not a game. He is in deep trouble. They learned that when he was in court he was obliged to sit next to a drug dealer who works in a fried chicken restaurant in Harlem or somewhere. They saw pictures of his haggard and unshaven face. They watched the video of the judge saying he was a flight risk, thus metaphorically slamming his cell door shut.
This upheaval has resulted in the French press changing its tune over the last few hours, and people are suddenly beginning to realize that this will have to happen in France too. Inevitably and inexorably. They are acknowledging that America, even thought the system there isn't perfect, treats all its citizens the same, particularly compared to what happens here in France. I even read an article (in French) headlined 'The strange omerta of the French press on DSK', which says it's time that the French press did more investigative journalism and that they be allowed to publish the results.
France is in deep shock because it knows in its heart of hearts, and from the political classes to the press to public opinion, that America is dispensing justice, no less, no more. Irrespective of who Dominique Strauss-Kahn is.
France has been denying reality for many years, but reality is now staring it back in the face. France now knows that things will never be the same again when this is all over. A sea change is coming in the way France sees its elites, believe me...
