Sex, drugs and parliament: an abuse scandal rocks Paris’s power elite Zelensky warns military leadership +++ EU Council President dampens hopes in Ukraine

Joël Guerriau is not just anyone: the 66-year-old independent senator is considered an influential parliamentarian; He has been a member of the French House of Lords for thirteen years and has headed prestigious committees such as the Foreign Policy Commission. He also maintains close contacts with the National Assembly, the First Council. A week ago, during a break in the meeting, he invited his old acquaintance, MP Sandrine Josso, to his home to celebrate, as he said, his recent re-election.

As Josso reported on television on Tuesday, the senator asked her to sit in the living room while he uncorked the champagne in the kitchen. He brought the glasses already filled and toasted the politician. The first sip was a bit sweet, said MP from the Center Party Modem. The person in front of her toasted her a second and third time.

She thought that was strange – and then saw the senator disappearing a ‘white bag’ into a drawer in the kitchen. Then her heart started beating and she broke out into a sweat. It was then that she realized that her old professional colleague had put a chemical substance in her drink, which most likely made her sexually submissive. She called a taxi and left the apartment, even though she could barely walk. “I was afraid of dying, of having a heart attack,” says Josso (48).

In the emergency room, traces of ecstasy were found in her blood. Guerriau was immediately arrested and had an explanation: he had been given a stimulant by another senator during a “dark” phase; However, he took it, even though he had already poured it into a glass. Then he forgot the whole thing and stupidly served the same glass to his MP friend.

The judiciary does not believe this version: it is investigating “the administration of a substance with the intention of committing rape or sexual aggression.” This carries a prison sentence of up to five years. Because this is an accelerated procedure, parliamentary immunity does not apply.

Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, to whose Horizons party Guerriau belongs, immediately suspended the senator; Senate President Gérard Larcher called for the resignation of Guerriau, who had spoken out against all forms of drug use in previous speeches.

At work, with family or at the disco

There is great outrage across the country. Green MP Sandrine Rousseau said it was not a drug case, but sexual violence. In 2022, the director of the renowned think tank ‘Institut Montaigne’ in Paris was sentenced to a year in prison after slipping a drug into the drink of a subordinate and ex-sister-in-law.

According to the head of the association “M’endors pas” (Don’t make me fall asleep), Caroline Darrieu, in most cases drug distributors know their victims, both at work and privately. Many discos are also aware of the use of the party drug GHB. MP Sandrine Josso, who has been suffering from panic attacks for a week, reported a casual comment from a helper that his emergency room handles cases of covert drug administration “three times a day.”