The Frenchman widely known as DSK is a member of France's Socialist party.

VOA: special.2011.05.20

But rejoining has proved controversial in France with the opposition Socialist party, and even members of Mr.Sarkozy's center right Union for a Popular Majority party, opposing the move, fearing France's independence will erode.

VOA: standard.2009.03.11

In 1988, Pierre Mauroy, the city's mayor and a powerful figure in France's Socialist Party, engineered the routing of a new network of domestic and international high-speed train services through Lille and used that coup to turn the city into a logistics and service hub.

ECONOMIST: Urban regeneration