Contrite Sarkozy offers apology as polls near

Paris: They are not qualities normally associated with Nicolas Sarkozy: humility, self-awareness, contrition. Then again, the French leader is less than three months from a presidential election in which he is on track, according to all the opinion polls, to be beaten by his socialist rival.

The unexpected mea culpa expressed by the normally hyper-confident president, in which he admitted personal and political mistakes, and vowed to quit politics altogether if defeated, was as shocking as it appeared stage-managed.

The surprising je regrette beaucoup, which focused on the style rather than the substance of his five years in office, came during an official visit last week to the overseas territory of French Guyana to present the traditional new year greetings. Sarkozy then took the unprecedented step of inviting 20 journalists to an "off the record" briefing.

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For the next three hours, during which he repeated several times that his remarks were not for public consumption, he made what may see as a last-ditch attempt to transform his image: Super Sarko the Omnipresident had become Nicolas the Penitent. The message, said Le Monde newspaper, was "I am not the man you think I am." Asked what he would do if he lost the election, he replied: "Yes, I am sure about one thing. I'm 56 years old. I've been in politics for 35 years. I have a profession. I will completely change my life. You will never hear of me again if I am beaten."

Sarkozy added, theatrically: "Life passes so quickly. In any case, I am at the end and I am not afraid." He went on to regret being photographed with Carla Bruni in Egypt and Jordan in 2007 before they were married.

"It was also an error. When the French saw me happy, they said to themselves ‘he has abandoned us'. We have elected the Bionic [Man] and he is happy. This year at Christmas, I didn't go on holiday because, with the crisis, the French wouldn't have understood."

Disappearing act

Sarkozy is many things, but he is not politically naive. He would have known his comments would be reported. Nor is it the first time the president has evoked disappearing from the political scene.

In 2008, just one year into his five-year mandate, he suggested he would not seek a second term in office. "I'll do this for five years and, afterwards, I'll leave and make money," the news magazine Le Point reported him saying.

The strategy is to "humanise" the president, to show with the false "off-the-record" that he entertains existential doubts and is not Super Sarkozy. With the first round of the presidential election in April, opinion polls show him on 24 per cent of the vote, behind Francois Hollande, the Socialist Party front-runner, who is on 27.5 per cent.

— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2012