French prime minister Bayrou denies the abuse scandal of Catholic school abuse during the treatise on parliament

The French Prime Minister François Bayrou vehemently played every role in covering up decades of alleged abuse at a Catholic school in southwestern France and informed a parliamentary commission that he was never informed about misconduct.

The Commission checks whether Bayrou, who acted as a French Minister of Education from 1993 to 1997 and held several local mandates in the region, knows widespread abuse claims.

Since February 2024, more than 200 complaints about alleged violence and rape have been submitted between the 1970s and 1990s.

Under oath, Bayrou rejected the allegations and claimed that he had never been made aware of the abuse and accused the opponents of using the affair for political profit.

He claimed that he had only received the broader abuse claims from the press and had no insider information.

Bayrou continued to criticize the parliamentary commission for a lack of objectivity and questioned the testimony of the former teacher Françoise Gulung, who claims to have warned him and his wife in 1994 and 1995 and to describe their statements “deceptive”.

However, his statements were refuted by several witnesses, including the former judge Christian Mirande, who was accused of a case from 1998 with Father Carricart, the former director of the school.

Mirande informed the Commission that Bayrou visited him during the investigation and worried about his son, a student at the school. Bayrou initially contested the meeting before later describing it as “accidental”.

Carricart received preliminary charges in 1998, but died of suicide before he was in court.

In April, Bayrous's eldest daughter, Hélène Perlant, unveiled She was beaten by a priest in school during a summer camp when she was 14 years old.

She said her father knew nothing about the incident. Nevertheless, critics Bayrou have accused Bayrou of lying parliament, a serious crime under French law.

The Bétharram -affair has significantly impaired Bayrous credibility. Although he has survived several voices in a shared parliament without trust, his approval reviews have been steadily decreased in the past few weeks.

In a recent survey by YouGov, almost 7 out of 10 French people believe that the prime minister should withdraw if it is found that he knew about the affair at that time.

The parliamentary investigation is expected to provide its conclusions at the end of June.