Why half of France wants Dominique Strauss-Kahn back

Two days later, the former IMF head was arrested after he had allegedly sexually assaulted a maid in New York.

When the French heard that the accuser's credibility was in question, it took only a few hours before journalists asked: could he come back?  Could he run for president?  Two months ago DSK was seen as the most likely to beat Nicolas Sarkozy at the next presidential election, and so the public, which had thought him guilty for a month and a half, was ready to change its mind very quickly.  Nobody in France went as far as saying the Sofitel maid was "a hooker", like the New York Post did, but a potential political comeback has already been discussed; the leftist newspaper Liberation asked "DSK, back?" on its front page.