François Bayrou promises to publish all his documents on the Bétharram affair within 48 hours to put an end to the "controversy"

He promises to put them online. To show that the accusations against him "are scandalously inaccurate," François Bayrou announced this Tuesday that he would make public all the documents he produced before the commission of inquiry into physical and sexual violence against children, born out of the Bétharram scandal.

"To put an end to this controversy, I intend, within 48 hours, to put online all the documents (...) which will show that these accusations are scandalously inaccurate and which, I hope, will allow all those who are interested to form an honest opinion," the Prime Minister stated before the National Assembly, during the session of questions to the government.

He was responding to the France Insoumise MP Sarah Legrain, who questioned him about a document from the Bétharram secondary school according to which a supervisor convicted of violence against a student in 1996 was still part of the establishment in 1997-1998.

This document contradicts a letter from the director at the time, quoted by François Bayrou during his hearing , which assures that he had been dismissed.

The Prime Minister was keen to quote again on Tuesday this letter, dated November 5, 1996, of which AFP obtained a copy, in which the then director of Bétharram told the inspector: "I have just dismissed, even if this risks having repercussions, the supervisor with a certain concept of discipline ."

In this case, which has been sticking to his skin for several months, François Bayrou, who educated several of his children in this Catholic establishment in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, is notably accused by the left of having been aware in the past of the actions denounced today , and of having intervened in a legal case involving a religious man from Bétharram accused of rape.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly and firmly denied the allegations, again denouncing political "instrumentalization" on May 14. On Tuesday, he said that LFI had "deflected" the commission of inquiry "from its purpose and subject," and again accused a key witness in the Bétharram affair, Françoise Gullung, of "fabrication," even though Gullung, a former teacher at Bétharram, believes that it is the Prime Minister who is "mistaken."

"I know that this bothers you," added François Bayrou on this subject in the hubbub, while the LFI deputy Ségolène Amiot called him a "liar."