"He remembers what he wants": Victims of Bétharram and MPs criticize François Bayrou's defense during his hearing

For more than five hours, Prime Minister François Bayrou tried to avoid the obvious : he lied to parliamentarians and the media and failed to act while sexual violence plagued the Catholic school Notre-Dame de Bétharram, located in his stronghold of Pau. Questioned by rapporteurs Paul Vannier (La France Insoumise, LFI) and Violette Spillebout (Renaissance), as part of the commission of inquiry into violence in schools , the elected representative from Béarn constantly refuted the accusations and denounced a political conspiracy.

"We conducted our work as calmly as usual, with the same methodology that we have been using for more than two months, and we interviewed more than one hundred people ," replied the president of the commission, and socialist MP for Seine-Saint-Denis, Fatiha Keloua Hachi. "I found him confused, sometimes even aggressive towards us." The head of government notably accused the rebellious MP of "dishonesty" and "manipulation," with the aim of presenting himself as the victim of a political trial.

"Everything I knew, I learned from the press ," the former president of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departmental council then hammered home, in response to a question about his remarks made to the deputies on February 11. I had no other information, as Minister of National Education, than from the press. And I did not benefit from any privileged information ." A contradiction for Paul Vannier, while