The fathers and mothers of the motherland in France do not escape hypocrisy. During the same week, Parliament has offered two incongruous pieces of news. A Senate investigative commission began hearings on "the impact of drug trafficking and the measures that must be taken to remedy it." The directors of the National Police, the Gendarmerie and the Anti-Narcotics Office (Ofast) had to swear that they would tell "the whole truth and nothing but the truth". Three days later, Paris Match magazine revealed, through the mouth of deputy Caroline Janvier, that drug use is a reality among parliamentarians and even among ministers.
Janvier, 41 years old and belonging to Renaixement - the centrist party of Emmanuel Macron -, decided to break the law of silence a few weeks after the scandal involving Senator Joël Guerriau, who was arrested and later charged for the alleged crime of having taken drugs a deputy friend, Sandrine Josso, whom he invited to his home and served him a drink in which he had added ecstasy, with the apparent aim of facilitating sexual intercourse. The case had a strong repercussion inside and outside the country. Guerriau, 66, denied trying to chemically subdue Josso, 48, but did admit to going through personal problems – including the recent death of his cat – and to having turned to drugs.
Even then the senator's hypocritical behavior emerged. His past anti-drug statements and his presence in an Upper House delegation that visited French Guiana, an overseas department in South America with an endemic drug-trafficking problem, were dusted off.
"Yes, there are soirées (nocturnal evenings) in which drugs circulate, as well as there are dinners or the end of parliamentary sessions in which there is excessive alcohol consumption," said Janvier, who represents the Loiret department in the National Assembly since June 2017.
The deputy's sincerity has caused surprise, media impact and discomfort among some of the colleagues, although she insisted that she did not intend to generalize but to recognize the existence of a problem. Janvier praised the courage of Josso, who fled the senator's apartment despite being very ill – the analysis at the hospital confirmed ecstasy in his body – and then explained the events in an interview to the television.
"It is necessary to analyze this phenomenon as a system, without excusing anything - affirmed Janvier-. Politics manufactures deviant behaviour”. The deputy recalled that the request to ban the sale of alcohol in the cafeteria during the night sessions came to the table of the Assembly, but the initiative did not succeed. It is not a matter of breathalyzing parliamentarians, although some have sometimes shown symptoms of intoxication.
According to Janvier, there are no more addictions in Parliament than in the rest of French society, but it is not an oasis either and you have to be honest and talk about it so that no one is deceived. "Addictive practices also exist in ministers - continued the deputy in the unusual confession to Paris Match -. But let him who casts the first stone be put in its place for a week. They have an unimaginable level of pressure. I talk to some of them and I don't judge them, but I empathize." The deputy herself admitted that, for a while, due to so many cocktails, inaugurations and other social events, she also drank and smoked a lot, until she decided to stop altogether. For Janvier, one of the problems is the long nighttime legislative sessions "that don't make any sense", and a stressful pace of life. "Either you lead an excellent life hygiene or you have to consume something to resist", he said. "Some will say that I sow discredit, but I have met incredible women and men, committed to their country - concluded the parliamentarian. Drifts are a symptom of excessive commitment”.
Another parliamentarian who preferred to remain anonymous also revealed to Paris Match that male colleagues had sometimes made unpleasant proposals to her in the wee hours of the morning when they were leaving the Assembly. "At the end of the session, at three in the morning, colleagues came to see me to offer me to go to soirées clearly labeled as sex and drugs", he said.
The link between power, sex and drugs (or drug abuse) is a well-known fact throughout history, with very famous and documented cases, for example the President of the United States John F. Kennedy. The phenomenon has been studied scientifically by Professor John Antonakis, from the University of Lausanne, an expert in the psychology of leaders, who would have an excellent laboratory in the French Parliament.
