French Interior Minister Orders Nationwide Pre-Emptive Drug Test for All MEPs Before They Can Criticize Him
Laurent Nunez expands a single dropped probe into a permanent public examination for every member of the European Parliament, with results announced live on television.
PARIS — Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced Monday that every member of the European Parliament will be required to pass a public drug test before being allowed to speak at any press conference, parliamentary session, or televised interview, after a single laboratory result failed to confirm his earlier claims about MEP Rima Hassan.
The new procedure, which Nunez described as «a routine measure to protect the Republic's informational hygiene,» will be conducted in a mobile laboratory parked outside the National Assembly. Each MEP must provide a sample while a camera crew from the ministry's new media unit broadcasts the results live. Those who test negative will receive a certificate valid for one week. Those who test positive will be asked to explain themselves on a panel show hosted by the minister himself.
«I did not organize any leaks,» Nunez told a hearing, «but from now on I will personally supervise the collection of every sample, because transparency demands it.» He added that the test would also apply to journalists who ask him questions, and to any citizen who has written a social media post mentioning his name in the past six months.
Hassan's lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, called the measure «a logical extension of a smear that has already collapsed under its own laboratory results.» He noted that the original drug probe was dropped after tests found no synthetic drugs, yet the minister has now turned the absence of evidence into a permanent public ritual.
By Tuesday morning, a queue of MEPs stretched from the Assembly's main gate to the Seine. Each carried a small plastic cup and a copy of the minister's new pamphlet, «How to Speak About Me Without Suspicion.» The first results are expected Thursday, live at eight.
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