France has always been a fertile territory for the sexual scandals of rulers, both in monarchical and republican times. This time, the protagonist is Senator Joël Guerriau, 66 years old, arrested in Paris on suspicion of having tried to drug a deputy friend, Sandrine Josso, 48 years old, in order to obtain her sexual favors.
The alleged victim, whose identity was initially withheld but later came forward, immediately went to a hospital, where tests determined there were traces of MDMA (the synthetic substance known as ecstasy) in his your body The events, which took place on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, shocked the French political world. Guerriau belongs to the centrist Horitzons party of former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, which supports Macron. The senator, a banker by profession, was mayor of Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, a town south of Nantes, in the Loire-Atlantique department, in the west of the country. He was re-elected to the Senate in September.
Guerriau and Josso had a simple friendship, French media said. He invited her to his home for a drink and immediately she, who is a dietitian by profession, felt very ill, so she rushed to a hospital. The finding of ecstasy confirmed the suspicion that the senator intended to abuse it and that he had introduced a substance into the drink.
Sources of the investigation quoted by the BFMTV chain indicated that the analyzes carried out on the senator showed traces of various drugs such as amphetamines, opiates, cannabis, cocaine, methadone and MDMA in the blood. Yesterday there was a two-hour argument between the senator and the deputy.
In theory, parliamentarians enjoy immunity and cannot be arrested except in cases of flagrant crime. In these circumstances, the table of the National Assembly or the Senate decides almost automatically to authorize the arrest. The crime of sexual submission by means of drugs supplied without the knowledge of the victim is serious enough for the Senate to decide without delay. The penalty can be up to five years in prison.
The detained senator, a father of five, is a heavyweight in the House. He serves as secretary and vice-president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces.
Guerriau's lawyer, Rémi-Pierre Drai, was outraged by the leak to the press of the details of the arrest. "We are very far from the rough interpretation of the facts that can be deduced from the reading of the first press articles", said the lawyer to the AFP agency.
Seven years ago, Guerriau was already the protagonist of another murky episode. On his Twitter account (today X), a photo of an erect penis appeared. He then defended himself and said that his collaborators often posted messages on the account and that he was not responsible. He threatened to file a complaint, but later backed off.
