Pollsters who have looked at French attitudes toward the private lives of public figures say that in general voters are not swayed by private sexual activities. Although there was considerable interest in Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s private life, it did not translate into condemnation of his abilities to work in the public sphere, even though many felt he had crossed a line beyond other politicians’ escapades.

“This isn’t a fundamental variable in the political choices of the French,” said François Kraus, a pollster at Ifop, a polling institute based in Paris. “One can have a private life that is quite dissolute, one can have an unconventional marital arrangement,” he said, adding that it would not inform people’s voting here.

He added that views in France were deeply different from the “Anglo-Saxon model where Lutheran and Protestant morality believe that your comportment in private is a reflection of how you conduct your public life.”

In the Strauss-Kahn decision, judges in the northern French city of Lille condemned efforts to bring the case to trial, noting that the facts did not support the allegations of pimping. Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s “sexual practices” did not imply that he knew the women involved were prostitutes, the judges said.

Thirty-five text messages exchanged between Mr. Strauss-Kahn and another defendant, which investigating magistrates alleged should be interpreted as referring to the hiring of prostitutes, did not show that he was the “instigator” of sex parties with prostitutes, the judges said, adding that Mr. Strauss-Kahn had only the “behavior of a client,” which is not punishable under French law.

In France, having sex with prostitutes is not illegal, but soliciting, running brothels and pimping are. Mr. Strauss-Kahn faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 1.5 million euros, or about $1.7 million, if convicted.