President Nicolas Sarkozy has rejected Dominique Strauss-Kahn's claims that he was the cause of the sex scandal that thwarted the ex-IMF chief's bid for the French presidency.
"Enough is enough! I would tell Mr. Strauss-Kahn to explain himself to the law and spare the French his remarks," he said while on the election campaign trail in central France.
The comment came after Strauss-Kahn told Britain's Guardian newspaper that his highly public fall from grace was orchestrated by his opponents to prevent him from standing as the Socialist candidate in the French election that culminates next week.
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The ex-International Monetary Fund boss had been favoured to win the vote until May last year, when he was arrested in New York and accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid. The charges were later dropped.
Strauss-Kahn said that although he did not believe the incident was a setup, the subsequent escalation of the event into a criminal investigation and highly publicised sex scandal was "shaped by those with a political agenda."
The Guardian said it was clear he was referring to people working for Sarkozy and his UMP party.
Strauss-Kahn refused to discuss with the left-wing daily a separate sex scandal that has erupted in France.
Sarkozy said that when he thought of all the "scandalous, shameful episodes" that Strauss-Kahn had allegedly been involved in in the United States and France, he was shocked that the ex-IMF chief should dare to speak out now.
"Mr. Strauss-Kahn starts giving lessons in morality and saying I am the only one responsible for what happened to him, well, that really is too much!", he said.
Sarkozy's Socialist rival Francois Hollande is tipped to win the second round of France's vote next Sunday.
