MEP Manon Aubry says extremely rare viper bite was ‘unlucky’

PARIS — Manon Aubry, co-chair of the Left Group in the European Parliament, was back on her feet Thursday after being hospitalized for a snake bite. “I was in the (French region of) Lot and I simply stepped on a viper,” Aubry told reporters on the first day of a conference in southern France by her hard-left party, France Unbowed. Aubry on Tuesday shared a picture of herself on a hospital bed after the incident, drawing widespread media attention in France. “I’d made that Instagram post precisely to avoid questions … I hadn’t anticipated a newswire dispatch on the subject,” she said. Aubry said Thursday that she was “unlucky,” as France typically only sees about 150 similar venomous snake bites and two serious cases a year. “At the hospital where I was treated, they told me they hadn’t seen one in 10 years,” she said. The 36-year-old then struck a more positive tone, calling the meeting an important moment for her party’s leader and presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has gained momentum since announcing his candidacy in May. “I see a tiny opening here — we’re going to win in 2027.”