The CSA survey, commissioned by broadcasters BFM and RMC and freesheet 20 Minutes, was conducted on Monday and Tuesday before a US judge said that charges against the 62-year-old Socialist would be dropped.
It was already clear then that the prosecution case was foundering, but 53 percent of voters told pollsters they nevertheless felt Strauss-Kahn “should not participate in the political debate in the coming months.”
In seven weeks, supporters of Strauss-Kahn’s Socialist Party will vote in an open primary to choose a candidate to face centre-right leader President Nicolas Sarkozy in next April’s election.
Strauss-Kahn was once favourite to be the left’s candidate and, before his arrest in April on charges of assaulting a hotel maid, polls predicted he would beat Sarkozy and become president of France.
With all US charges against him dropped he could return to France, but may still face a civil damages action in the United States, while a second woman has accused him of rape in France. He denies the charge.
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