French feminists were understandably indignant at the fuss made over the return to Paris this week of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund. Gisèle Halimi, the veteran lawyer and crusader for women’s rights, described the flashing cameras and silver screen smiles at Charles de Gaulle airport as “indecent”, given that the sexual assault charges against Mr Strauss-Kahn have been dropped rather than proved false.

More indecent, however, is a suggestion emerging from certain influential quarters that Mr Strauss-Kahn, once the Socialist party’s best hope for winning next year’s presidential election, still has a role to play in public life.

Through his formidable communications machine, Mr Strauss-Kahn has let it be known that he wants to be “useful” – if not in France, then perhaps on the wider European stage, where he could help shape the response to the debt crisis. Yet even if he were not involved in three other legal actions linked to alleged sexual assaults in the US and France, revelations about his libertine private life and attitude to women make any public role unthinkable.