The French Prime Minister Bayrou denies the cover -up in the abuse scandal of the Catholic School

Paris (AP) – The French Prime Minister François Bayrou competed on Wednesday, decades of suspected abuse in a Catholic school in which some of his children studied, and informed a parliamentary commission that he had “hidden” and said that the opponents exploit the case for political profit.

“This is not about the truth,” said Bayrou, who has been accused of having hidden the truth about the private Catholic school Notre-Dame de Bétharram in southwestern France, where he was a chosen official for a long time. “It's about destruction,” he said.

He opened his united testimony by recognizing the alleged victims, describing a recent wave of revelations as “hidden continent” and said: “Finally”.

An investigation commission of the National Assembly, the French lower house of parliament, examines allegations of physical and sexual abuse for over five decades at school near the city of Pau.

Bayrou has been mayor of Pau since 2014 and has held this position five months ago. He has been a member of this area for about 20 years and National Education Minister from 1993 to 1997.

Over 200 symptoms have been officially submitted since February 2024 for alleged abuse at school, including dozens of alleged rapes of priests, said Alain Esquerre, the spokesman for a group of victims.

Critics have accused Bayrou of liating parliament – a serious crime under French law. In February, Bayrou informed the legislators that he had never been informed about violence (or) sexual violence at school. He admitted days later that he was in one fell swoop of 1996 and said he had ordered an investigation at the time.

He claimed that he had only experienced sexual abuse by local newspapers. The judge and investigator added, “held everything secret.”

When Bayrou was asked about changes in his history, he replied: “My version has not changed.” He insisted that, as Minister of Education, he had no more information than in the newspapers.

The Commission also asked him for a former teacher, Françoise Gullung, who claimed to have warned him and his wife. “Madame Gullung didn't tell me anything,” said Bayrou. “Your assertion is a production.”

Bayrou was also refuted by Christian Mirande, a judge who was accused of a case from 1998 with Father Carricart, the former director of the school, who was accused of sexual abuse.

The judge informed the investigation that Bayrou attended him at that time and worried about his son, who was a school student. Bayrou initially denied the meeting and later described it as “accidental”.

Carricart received preliminary rape costs in 1998 and died before the process of suicide.

The case has become deeply personal for the prime minister. Bayrous's oldest daughter, Hélène Perlant, revealed last month that she belonged among children who were abused, and said a priest beat her in the summer camp when she was 14 years old.

Now 53, said Perlant, she never talked to her father or anyone else about the recent publication of a book in which she tells her story. “I was silent for 30 years,” she said.

Esquerre, the spokesman for the victims, himself a former student and victim of abuse, announced the investigation commission in March that “it was a time of terror, and nobody could imagine that we were in the hands of priests that were also the attackers.”

Esquerre showed an expression with a list of names and said: “I have a list of all priests in the past 70 years, all aggressors, all of these priests. And so there are still a number of victims, which of course will only connect the significant number of complaints.”

Sylvie Corbet, Associated Press