Gérard Larcher, the president of the Senate, on July 2, 2020 in Paris.

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Jacques Witt / SIPA

  • On Facebook as on Twitter, Gérard Larcher has been the subject of very critical comments in recent days.

  • Many Internet users accuse him, thanks to a viral photo, of having breakfasted copiously in the Senate with a few guests while restaurants are closed due to health restrictions linked to the coronavirus.

  • But the photo in question was taken in May 2018.

At first glance, the scene is not enough to stir up emotion.

Who would be outraged to see Gérard Larcher, the President of the Senate, share a breakfast with a few guests gathered around the same table?

However, since it was posted on Facebook on January 8, this photo has garnered more than 14,000 shares and nearly a hundred comments, in addition to being taken up by many Internet users, on this social network as on Twitter.

Gérard Larcher's viral (and out of context) photo.

- screenshot / Facebook

It must be said that the associated legend has something to question in this period of the Covid-19 pandemic, which requires restaurants in France to keep the curtain down since the end of October: "Quick little snack ([ to the Senate) with our money while our restaurateurs are losing everything ”.

Except that the snapshot in question was not taken these days ... but almost three years ago, at a time when barrier gestures were no more topical than the closing of restaurants.

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, Gérard Larcher's office deplores that "social networks are panicking over crude fakes news" and details the context of this meeting: "It is a breakfast with the office of the Association rural mayors on May 30, 2018. The senator present is Jacques Genest, who has not been a senator since June 2020 ”.

The latter had indeed tweeted, on the morning of May 30, 2018, three photos of this "constructive meeting of rural mayors of France" with the President of the Senate.

Another of these photos has also been taken out of context today by other Internet users.

At the end of November, the Senate had already been accused of having kept his restaurant open based on a photo taken out of context when it was closed due to confinement.

In October, it was the refreshment bar of the National Assembly that had been the target of a similar infox.

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