Strauss-Kahn apology seen contrived, staged

PARIS, (Reuters) – The French media scorned what it  called an insincere and staged TV apology by Dominique  Strauss-Kahn for his sexual encounter with a New York hotel  maid, with many noting he left the door ajar for a eventual  political comeback.   
Up to 13.5 million viewers watched TF1’s Sunday news show,  the biggest audience since 2005 for a French news broadcast, to see the former presidential hopeful voice “infinite” regret over  a liaison he called ill-advised but consensual.   
Strauss-Kahn said he regretted his moral error but also  decried the way he had been treated as a criminal over a private  act he said did not involve force.   
“Everything seemed pre-prepared, rehearsed, learned by  heart, set up, as if it was pre-recorded,” the left-leaning  Liberation daily commented on Monday.   
It was the first time Strauss-Kahn spoke at length to TV  cameras since the New York sex assault case ended his career as  IMF head and wrecked his chances of running in France’s 2012  election, but many found his hand-wringing unconvincing.   
Dressed in a dark suit and clearly uncomfortable discussing  the nine-minute sexual liaison, Strauss-Kahn brandished a copy  of the New York prosecutor’s report to stress he had been  cleared of using force.   
“DSK: A funny kind of mea culpa,” was the headline in the  more mainstream daily Le Parisien.   
“His Sunday contrition was half-hearted,” editorialist  Vicent Giret wrote in Liberation. “When you turned off the TV,  you had a furious desire to move on to something else.”   
A Paris office worker, who gave his name as Jean-Marie, told  Reuters Television: “It didn’t seem very sincere, to be honest.  It seemed prepared and a tad hypocritical.”   
     
 DETERMINATION PEEKED THROUGH   
Strauss-Kahn, widely known by his initials DSK, returned to  France earlier this month after prosecutors dropped charges of attempted rape over his encounter with chambermaid Nafissatou  Diallo in his luxury Manhattan hotel suite.   
The case sparked an international media frenzy, putting an  end to the former finance minister’s immediate presidential  ambitions and removing an influential voice from the world stage  just as the global economic crisis calls for expertise.   
Strauss-Kahn, formerly seen as the left’s best chance of  unseating the ruling conservative party, told TF1 interviewer  Claire Chazal, a friend of his wife Anne Sinclair, he would stay  out of the Socialist Party’s 2012 election campaign and would  take time to plan his next career move.   
But many felt his interview left the door open for a  political comback over the long term.   
“Beneath the remorse and all the ostensible signs of  sincerity, you could already see the determination peeking  through,” said right-wing daily Le Figaro in an editorial.   
Financial daily Les Echos said that Strauss-Kahn’s brief  digression on the subject of the Greek debt crisis was a way of  trying to make the public miss his voice on the global crisis.   
For the most part, Strauss-Kahn focused on the New York sex  scandal, well aware that millions around the world, captivated by the scandal, wanted to hear his version of events.   
Strauss-Kahn said he regretted causing pain to his wife and  family and said deep reflection over the scandal meant he had  lost forever a former “frivolity” in his dealings with women.   
Political opponents were scathing in reaction.   
“There was absolutely nothing spontaneous in his  declarations. The trickery was so blatant that it was all hard  to believe,” National Front leader Marine Le Pen.   
“It left me with an awful impression,” Pierre Laurent, head  of France’s Communist Party told France Info radio. “The whole business leaves a bitter taste with all those men and women who  support women’s right to dignity,” he said.   
Strauss-Kahn’s confirmation that Socialist Martine Aubry is  mainly running in the party primary due to a pact with him that  meant either one would run was expected to anger Aubry’s camp.   
Analysts said it could give a boost to Aubry’s rival  Francois Hollande, who is ahead in polls for the primary.   
A handful of commentators felt sympathy overall for the  left’s fallen star, however, after he told TF1 he had “lost  everything” over the New York hotel maid affair.   
“He was honest, sincere, and above all very dignified. It’s  not easy to say all that, to admit you’re at fault,” Dominique Wolton, a political communication specialist, told Le Parisien.   
Right-leaning daily Le Figaro said only somebody with “a  heart of stone” could be left unmoved by his performance. “The  man has come a long way and his life has turned into a novel,  whatever you might think of the way he behaved,” it said.