Politicians from France and beyond have hailed Gisèle Pelicot’s courage and called the trial of the men who abused her historic, while feminist groups have stressed there is still a long way to go and demanded fundamental changes to France’s sexual abuse laws.

“Thank you for your courage, Gisèle Pelicot,” the president of France’s national assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, posted after the announcement that all 51 accused, including Pelicot’s former husband Dominique, had been found guilty.

One of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the court in Avignon for drugging his then wife and inviting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the south of France over the course of almost a decade.

Gisèle Pelicot waived her right to anonymity so the trial could he held in public. “Through you, the voices of so many victims are being heard; shame is changing sides; the taboo has been broken. The world has changed,” Braun-Pivet added.

Foreign leaders were among those to react, including Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who said Pelicot had given “women around the world a strong voice. The shame always lies with the perpetrator.”

Marine Tondelier of France’s Greens said the trial had “shattered society’s taboos” and “marks a turning point in the fight against rape culture”. The Communist party leader, Fabien Roussel, said rape culture “had at last been denounced and condemned”.

The left-leaning MP François Ruffin praised Pelicot’s “strength, determination, courage, which have moved people’s consciences”, while the Paris regional president, Valérie Pécresse, a conservative, said the 72-year-old had performed a service to society.

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“Her refusal to hold the trial behind closed doors … is a signal to millions of young girls and women to encourage them to no longer remain silent in the face of assaults, rapes and all forms of sexist and sexual violence,” Pécresse said.

The outgoing education minister, Anne Genetet, said Pelicot’s resilience “forces our admiration”. The trial should “remind us all of our collective responsibility to ensure that respect, consent and equality are non-negotiable principles”, she added.

Aurore Bergé, the outgoing minister for gender equality, thanked Pelicot for her courage, saying it had “made possible the change our society needed”. But others noted such change was long overdue, and more must be done to ensure it happens.

Laurence Rossignol, a Socialist senator and former minister for family and women’s rights, welcomed the Avignon rape convictions and joined others in questioning some of the sentencing.

“The gap between the sentences the prosecutor called for and some of the sentences handed down is disappointing and significant,” Rossignol said. “The responsibility of consumers of porn, paid sex or a sedated wife is always minimised.”

The Front Féministe International, an umbrella group of 85 feminist collectives in eight countries, also described the verdict as historic but said that it came in a country where “rapists enjoy virtual impunity”.

In France, the group said: “Ten per cent of victims of sexual violence lodge a complaint and 94% of these complaints are dismissed.” The verdict came as another high-profile trial involving alleged drugging was set to begin in a “macho society”, it said.

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The centre-right senator Joël Guerriau, 66, is accused of drugging an MP, Sandrine Josso, with intent to rape or sexually assault her. Josso has accused Geurriau of giving her champagne spiked with ecstasy. He has denied all wrongdoing,

Other feminist groups called for major changes to the law.

By refusing a closed-doors trial, Pelicot had “given a historic dimension to this trial, exposed marital rape, the banality of rapists, the extent of chemical coercion”, said Anne-Cécile Mailfert of Fondation des Femmes (Women’s Foundation).

But the fight against impunity “has only just begun”, Mailfert said, adding that she shared “incomprehension” at some of the sentences and that what was now needed was a “fundamental rethink” of the way the justice system deals with sexual violence.

“Society as a whole – police, justice, and politicians – can no longer ignore victims,” said Mailfert. “It is urgent to adopt an all-embracing framework law offering comprehensive protection against sexual and gender-based violence.”

Amy Bah of the NousToutes (All of Us) collective stressed the importance of educating young people about sexual violence and consent, while Choose Women’s Cause said the law “must now evolve anew to clearly define what is consent, and what isn’t”.

Unlike France, some European countries, including Spain, have adopted so-called “only yes means yes” sexual assault legislation, meaning that consent must always be affirmative and cannot be assumed to have been given by default or silence.