Two years and two months. That was how long it took Sénat President Gérard Larcher, from the right-wing Les Républicains party, to officially support Sandrine Josso, a centrist MP who was secretly drugged by former senator Joël Guerriau in November 2023. “On behalf of the Sénat, and in my own name, I wish to express my support for Ms. Sandrine Josso, whose suffering in the face of this ordeal we recognize,” Larcher told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday, January 31. He added that he would contact Josso “in the coming days,” and is due to meet with her on February 11.
The belated public statement reflects the upper chamber of French Parliament’s awkward treatment of the issue. On January 29, Josso had published a letter addressed to Larcher in which she condemned his “silence.” Two days earlier, Guerriau had been sentenced by a Paris criminal court to four years in prison, of which 30 months suspended, for having drugged Josso with the intent to sexually assault or rape her. Guerriau has appealed the decision and continues to claim the drugging was an accident.
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