Back in France, Strauss-Kahn Is Eye of Media Tornado
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: September 4, 2011
Source - New York Times
Dominique Strauss-Kahan arrived in the courtyard of his home in Paris, France, on Sunday morning.
PARIS — It was not quite like the arrival of a pope, with a kiss of the tarmac, but the press attention was comparable on Sunday morning when a relieved Dominique Strauss-Kahn returned to France.
With charges of attempted rape against him dropped, but having had to resign his job as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was free to come home to a country still shocked and mystified about how a potential president on the verge of a carefully planned political campaign could have been so reckless as to have had a sexual encounter, consensual or otherwise, with a hotel chambermaid.
With his Socialist Party deep into the presidential primary campaign and most of his closest allies having joined with other politicians, Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s homecoming left the party uneasy. Even the party secretary, Martine Aubry, a candidate who would not have run if Mr. Strauss-Kahn had done so, distanced herself from him for the first time, telling French television last week, “I think the same thing as many women regarding Strauss-Kahn’s attitude to women.”
But from the moment that Mr. Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair, stepped off Air France Flight 007 here, they were the smiling, silent eye of a media tornado, which was echoed in the nonstop, live television coverage on French cable news channels.
At the airport, surrounded by police officers who tried to keep the photographers and reporters at bay and serenaded by a man trying to sing Verdi, they smiled, waved and greeted a few supporters, but said nothing.
Nor did they speak when they arrived at the door of their apartment building on the chic Place des Vosges, though they were nearly crushed as he tried to press the code to open the door. Even once inside the courtyard, suddenly Mr. Strauss-Kahn noticed another television crew, and again he and Ms. Sinclair gave waves and big silent smiles of the kind they perfected in New York when faced with the press. Afterward, three men busied themselves with the luggage.
While a spokesman said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, would not speak to the news media on Sunday, nearly every other politician in France found the time to do so.
François Pupponi, an ally and mayor of the Paris suburb Sarcelles, where Mr. Strauss-Kahn had been mayor, said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, known here as DSK, had no intention of joining the October primary for the May 2012 presidential race, but needed time to consider the future and relax.
“What’s important is that he’s back in France,” Mr. Pupponi said. “He’s going to be able to think about the future with more clarity.” He has much to offer France, Europe and the world in the future, Mr. Pupponi added.
Pierre Moscovici, a close ally who decided after the arrest to become campaign coordinator for the Socialist front-runner, François Hollande, said he had phoned to welcome the couple home after an ordeal that was, “as he said himself, a test, a nightmare.” Mr. Strauss-Kahn “will speak to the French at a moment he will decide, and will do it, I think, without too much delay,” Mr. Moscovici said. “I wish him freedom to spend time with his friends and family, to rediscover France and also to reconstruct himself.” In the future, he added, Mr. Strauss-Kahn “will be useful to his country, useful to the left, and his recognized skills will find a new use.”
Gilles Finchelstein, who runs a research institution associated with his mentor, Mr. Strauss-Kahn, has been planning Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s return to France, including how and when to speak to the news media. “He owes an explanation to the French, and the French are waiting for it,” he told Le Figaro. An unidentified friend of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s told the newspaper: “It’s simple. Dominique will have to answer two key questions: what happened in the Sofitel, and what is he going to do in politics.” The maid worked at the Sofitel Hotel in New York; Mr. Strauss-Kahn was arrested May 14, and charges were dismissed Aug. 23.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn “will not come back to a classic political life for several months, in any case,” said another close ally, Jean-Marie Le Guen, a Socialist legislator who also joined Mr. Hollande. “But DSK was one of the few people capable of helping Europe escape the crisis in which it is sinking, and we have need of men and women like DSK to get out of it.”
But others were less solicitous, especially at the summer conference of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, Union for a Popular Movement. Xavier Bertrand, the labor minister, said Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s return was a matter for the Socialists. “I’ve got a lot of other things on my mind,” he said.
Chantal Brunel, an outspoken U.M.P. legislator, said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn “is going to be an indelible stain on the Socialist Party” and will harm the chances of Ms. Aubry. “When American justice annulled the charges against him, that shocked the French, and especially women,” she said. “It was three steps backward in the battle against violence against women.”
Another Socialist presidential candidate, Arnaud Montebourg, said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn should apologize to party colleagues and voters as he did to the International Monetary Fund staff in Washington. “He should make the same gesture after the toll we have all had to bear in this affair,” Mr. Montebourg said.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s legal troubles are not over. He faces a civil trial in the United States brought by the hotel maid, and prosecutors here are investigating a complaint of attempted rape made against him in July by a novelist, Tristane Banon, for an encounter that took place in 2003. Mr. Strauss-Kahn denies it. Prosecutors will decide whether to prosecute the case, drop it or open a further judicial inquiry, and it is likely he will be called to testify.
The unease around Mr. Strauss-Kahn will not go away soon. Whatever his accomplishments, his name is now associated with a hotel maid and many tales of his promiscuity that have emerged since then. A former Socialist prime minister, Michel Rocard, caused a ruckus last week when he said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn “obviously has a mental illness, trouble controlling his impulses.” Mr. Rocard, 81, added: “He’s out of the game. It’s a shame, he had real talent.”
But others think that if the Socialists win the presidency, Mr. Strauss-Kahn might be brought into government again as a minister. And as the election campaign unfolds, he is likely to be an influential critic of Mr. Sarkozy’s policies while helping the Socialists build credibility on economic issues.
Still, feelings remain quite raw. After Mr. Strauss-Kahn and Ms. Sinclair arrived home, Reuters reported, a resident of their building could be heard shouting in the interior courtyard: “You are a disgusting creature. Go and get cured somewhere else.”
Alison Smale and Jonathan J. Li contributed reporting.
A version of this article appeared in print on September 5, 2011, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Back in France, Strauss-Kahn Is Eye of Media Tornado.
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: September 4, 2011
Source - New York Times
Dominique Strauss-Kahan arrived in the courtyard of his home in Paris, France, on Sunday morning.PARIS — It was not quite like the arrival of a pope, with a kiss of the tarmac, but the press attention was comparable on Sunday morning when a relieved Dominique Strauss-Kahn returned to France.
With charges of attempted rape against him dropped, but having had to resign his job as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was free to come home to a country still shocked and mystified about how a potential president on the verge of a carefully planned political campaign could have been so reckless as to have had a sexual encounter, consensual or otherwise, with a hotel chambermaid.
With his Socialist Party deep into the presidential primary campaign and most of his closest allies having joined with other politicians, Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s homecoming left the party uneasy. Even the party secretary, Martine Aubry, a candidate who would not have run if Mr. Strauss-Kahn had done so, distanced herself from him for the first time, telling French television last week, “I think the same thing as many women regarding Strauss-Kahn’s attitude to women.”
But from the moment that Mr. Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair, stepped off Air France Flight 007 here, they were the smiling, silent eye of a media tornado, which was echoed in the nonstop, live television coverage on French cable news channels.
At the airport, surrounded by police officers who tried to keep the photographers and reporters at bay and serenaded by a man trying to sing Verdi, they smiled, waved and greeted a few supporters, but said nothing.
Nor did they speak when they arrived at the door of their apartment building on the chic Place des Vosges, though they were nearly crushed as he tried to press the code to open the door. Even once inside the courtyard, suddenly Mr. Strauss-Kahn noticed another television crew, and again he and Ms. Sinclair gave waves and big silent smiles of the kind they perfected in New York when faced with the press. Afterward, three men busied themselves with the luggage.
While a spokesman said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, would not speak to the news media on Sunday, nearly every other politician in France found the time to do so.
François Pupponi, an ally and mayor of the Paris suburb Sarcelles, where Mr. Strauss-Kahn had been mayor, said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, known here as DSK, had no intention of joining the October primary for the May 2012 presidential race, but needed time to consider the future and relax.
“What’s important is that he’s back in France,” Mr. Pupponi said. “He’s going to be able to think about the future with more clarity.” He has much to offer France, Europe and the world in the future, Mr. Pupponi added.
Pierre Moscovici, a close ally who decided after the arrest to become campaign coordinator for the Socialist front-runner, François Hollande, said he had phoned to welcome the couple home after an ordeal that was, “as he said himself, a test, a nightmare.” Mr. Strauss-Kahn “will speak to the French at a moment he will decide, and will do it, I think, without too much delay,” Mr. Moscovici said. “I wish him freedom to spend time with his friends and family, to rediscover France and also to reconstruct himself.” In the future, he added, Mr. Strauss-Kahn “will be useful to his country, useful to the left, and his recognized skills will find a new use.”
Gilles Finchelstein, who runs a research institution associated with his mentor, Mr. Strauss-Kahn, has been planning Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s return to France, including how and when to speak to the news media. “He owes an explanation to the French, and the French are waiting for it,” he told Le Figaro. An unidentified friend of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s told the newspaper: “It’s simple. Dominique will have to answer two key questions: what happened in the Sofitel, and what is he going to do in politics.” The maid worked at the Sofitel Hotel in New York; Mr. Strauss-Kahn was arrested May 14, and charges were dismissed Aug. 23.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn “will not come back to a classic political life for several months, in any case,” said another close ally, Jean-Marie Le Guen, a Socialist legislator who also joined Mr. Hollande. “But DSK was one of the few people capable of helping Europe escape the crisis in which it is sinking, and we have need of men and women like DSK to get out of it.”
But others were less solicitous, especially at the summer conference of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, Union for a Popular Movement. Xavier Bertrand, the labor minister, said Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s return was a matter for the Socialists. “I’ve got a lot of other things on my mind,” he said.
Chantal Brunel, an outspoken U.M.P. legislator, said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn “is going to be an indelible stain on the Socialist Party” and will harm the chances of Ms. Aubry. “When American justice annulled the charges against him, that shocked the French, and especially women,” she said. “It was three steps backward in the battle against violence against women.”
Another Socialist presidential candidate, Arnaud Montebourg, said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn should apologize to party colleagues and voters as he did to the International Monetary Fund staff in Washington. “He should make the same gesture after the toll we have all had to bear in this affair,” Mr. Montebourg said.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s legal troubles are not over. He faces a civil trial in the United States brought by the hotel maid, and prosecutors here are investigating a complaint of attempted rape made against him in July by a novelist, Tristane Banon, for an encounter that took place in 2003. Mr. Strauss-Kahn denies it. Prosecutors will decide whether to prosecute the case, drop it or open a further judicial inquiry, and it is likely he will be called to testify.
The unease around Mr. Strauss-Kahn will not go away soon. Whatever his accomplishments, his name is now associated with a hotel maid and many tales of his promiscuity that have emerged since then. A former Socialist prime minister, Michel Rocard, caused a ruckus last week when he said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn “obviously has a mental illness, trouble controlling his impulses.” Mr. Rocard, 81, added: “He’s out of the game. It’s a shame, he had real talent.”
But others think that if the Socialists win the presidency, Mr. Strauss-Kahn might be brought into government again as a minister. And as the election campaign unfolds, he is likely to be an influential critic of Mr. Sarkozy’s policies while helping the Socialists build credibility on economic issues.
Still, feelings remain quite raw. After Mr. Strauss-Kahn and Ms. Sinclair arrived home, Reuters reported, a resident of their building could be heard shouting in the interior courtyard: “You are a disgusting creature. Go and get cured somewhere else.”
Alison Smale and Jonathan J. Li contributed reporting.
A version of this article appeared in print on September 5, 2011, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Back in France, Strauss-Kahn Is Eye of Media Tornado.