Strauss-Kahn interview receives frosty media reception

Sep 19, 2011, 10:05 GMT

Paris - French media and politicians heaped criticism Monday on the interview given by former presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn to TF1 broadcaster on Sunday night, in which he admitted to an 'inappropriate' sexual act with New York hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo.

In his first interview since his arrest in May on charges of attempting to rape Diallo, which prosecutors dropped in August, the former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief expressed regret for his 'moral mistake' but denied any criminal wrongdoing.

Brandishing the prosecutors' August 23 report, in which they explain their decision for dropping the charges, he claimed Diallo had 'lied about everything' and that it was 'possible' he had fallen into a trap.

Over 13 million viewers watched the 23-minute interview conducted by news anchor Claire Chazal, a friend of Strauss-Kahn's wife Anne Sinclair.

The audience was the highest for TF1's evening news since 2005, but many viewers and commentators came away feeling short-changed by the staged feel to the interview and Strauss-Kahn's failure to fully come clean about the events that led to his arrest.

In their report the prosecution said there was evidence of a hurried sexual encounter, but said they could not rely on Diallo's testimony to prove it was forced after she had discredited herself as a witness by repeatedly lying.

For the leftist Liberation daily Strauss-Kahn's 'Sunday contrition was played in a minor note.'

He had not given 'an ounce of proof' to back his claim of a possible trap, the paper criticized in an editorial. 'Turning off the television last night, one had a furious desire to move onto something else.'

The Est Republicain paper said Strauss-Kahn 'gave the feeling he was reciting the words scripted by his communications team.'

Many commentators were also indignant at Strauss-Kahn's characterization of his attitude to women as one of 'lightness.'

'That lightness I have lost for ever,' he said in a remark that was seen as euphemistic, given his reputation for compulsive womanizing.

For La Voix du Nord newspaper, Strauss-Kahn's credibility was 'more devalued that a holding of Greek debt.'

For others, his credibility as an economist was still intact, after he enthusiastically rounded out the interview with an analysis of the eurozone debt crisis.

The economist accused European leaders of doing 'too little, too late' and urged eurozone members to take a bigger hit on the debt of ailing countries such as Greece.

'Professeur Strauss-Kahn is more credible when he is giving economics lessons,' Le Republicain Lorrain daily conceded.