Former prime minister Edouard Philippe may not want to act as a judge, but on Tuesday, November 21, he admitted that he had decided the fate of Senator Joël Guerriau without any second thoughts. Three days earlier, the political bureau of Horizons – the right-wing political party founded by Philippe – decided to suspend Guerriau with a view to expelling him, the day after it had been announced that he was under investigation for the "administration, without the knowledge of [MP] Sandrine Josso, of a substance of such nature as to alter her discernment or control over her actions, in order to commit rape or sexual assault" and "possession and use of substances classified as narcotics," namely MDMA or ecstasy.

"We don't have any sort of acceptance for events of this nature," insisted Philippe, the Horizons mayor of Le Havre, Normandy. Even if he said he "understands that there is a presumption of innocence," he considered it "essential that political organizations know how to react quickly when one of their own is guilty."

It was a "swift and unanimous" sanction, with "no hesitation or dissenting voices," said Environment Minister Christophe Béchu, who is secretary general of Horizons. Confronted with the first scandal of this kind to affect his party, Philippe wanted an "exemplary" attitude, according to his entourage.

Speaking on France 5 television on Monday, Josso said that she "thought she was going to die because [she] thought he [Guerriau] was going to abuse [her]." The following day, the MP explained on another channel, BFM-TV, that she had found the senator's behavior "bizarre" during the evening they had spent together on November 14. "He said to me, 'But you're not drinking anything!'" she recalled, explaining that she had fled in a cab when she felt her heartbeat accelerate after having drunk the glass of champagne he had served her.

Guerriau has admitted to having had what he took to be "euphoriants" at his home – which "a senator" had allegedly given him – but has denied that he wanted to abuse the MP, as his lawyer, Rémi-Pierre Drai, told BFM-TV on Saturday. According to the lawyer, the 66-year-old senator wanted to take a pick-me-up because he was "drained" by the recent senatorial election campaign and the imminent death of his "old cat." It was by "accident," he continued, that the glass intended for his client was drunk from by the MP. Guerriau, who spoke of a "handling error," is "devastated" by the "relentlessness" to which he has been subjected, his lawyer told Le Monde.

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