(Anthere anthere6@yahoo.com):
no, we usually ask Brion directly (which I did on meta and english). Or post it at the french list, which Brion read. But, when I saw he was obviously not around, I thought useless to post it on our list, where no other developper would see it. I don't any other developper did upgrade anyone sysop for us. So, we entirely rely on Brion. I don't think it is the best option to entirely rely only on one person.
This mailing list is the place to put sysop requests. That's what the Wikipedia:Administrators page says to do, and if that page isn't yet translated onto the French wiki, it should be. ALL of the developers read this list, and any of us can respond to a simple sysop request.
In the long run, we'll have a process that doesn't require developer intervention, but we've got more pressing matters to deal with at the moment.