Athens laments Strauss-Kahn's fall

One of the major consequences of the events in New York will be their effect on the Eurozone and in particular on the Greek crisis. Experts expect that both of these problems will be rendered more serious by the absence of DSK — an international leader in a non-European organisation who was known for his keen understanding of the challenges and problems faced by Europe and Greece.

Last year, he was the first to respond to Greece’s appeal for financial aid, well before the Europeans had decided on their strategy after prolonged negotiations with Germany. He also tended to have a better understanding of the problems faced by Greece (and southern countries in general), than governments in many northern European countries.

According to several sources, at a meeting scheduled for Sunday 15 May, he was hoping to persuade Chancellor Angela Merkel that Greece would need more time to repay its bailout loans — in fact, he was the first to have voiced support for this demand. Unfortunately, this meeting did not take place. On Monday 16 May, he was supposed to take part in a meeting of Eurozone finance ministers to discuss a number of solutions and to take some serious decisions in the run-up to the European summit in June. Now this meeting will go ahead without him.

As a European and a potential candidate in the next French presidential election, DSK felt obliged to demonstrate greater interest in Europe and in the fate of weak countries than an Asian IMF leader might have done.

This sudden tragedy will have consequences in Greece, where many issues have yet to be settled: negotiations with the troika of European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF experts on the payment of the fifth tranche of the 110 billion euro bailout package are still ongoing, while discussions on the provision of a further loan for Greece have only just begun. Now they will have to go ahead without the key player, which DSK undoubtedly was. Only time will tell if the events that took place in the New York Sofitel will have a decisive influence on the outcome of this particular match.

From Lisbon

Concerns about harsher austerity demands

Fearing the likely departure of International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) in the wake of rape charges pressed against him, Lisbon daily Público writes that "Portugal and Greece will lose the flexible vision of the current IMF”. His absence at the Ecofin gathering of European ministers on May 16 will not affect the Portuguese aid program, Público believes, but the IMF could impose stricter austerity demands. With DSK’s exit, it’s highly unlikely that the next IMF chief will be a European, which means that he won't have "the involvement or the vision of the actual [director] in solving the euro’s problems", complains a European diplomat quoted by the newspaper. "It’s terrible for Europe", he adds, mourning "the loss of a very important actor and a great ally" of the eurozone. Público’s leader writes that "the abrupt fall of DSK, one of the most powerful men in the world leaves a vacuum that generates concern". He was a vital ally of Europe, it concludes, as well as a stout defender of the most fragile economies, persuading the most reluctant capitals to move forward on help packages.