‘Hard choice between crisis and country’

Abandoning his perch above the International Monetary Fund to plunge back into French politics is a delicate decision for Dominique Strauss-Kahn as his institution battles a eurozone financial crisis.

Abandoning his perch above the International Monetary Fund to plunge back into French politics is a delicate decision for Dominique Strauss-Kahn as his institution battles a eurozone financial crisis.

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Will he leave or won't he? The question is racing through France and Washington as Strauss-Kahn is three years into his term as IMF managing director, with two more still to go.

The former Socialist finance minister — is under mounting pressure to declare if he will give up his job with the IMF to run for the presidency against President Nicolas Sarkozy, the presumed candidate of the center-right UMP party, at a time when Sarkozy’s popularity is at an abyss.

Opinion polls back Strauss-Kahn for president.