LIVE. Bétharram Affair: "I did not receive any inside information," Bayrou asserts.

François Bayrou explained to the commission of inquiry: “My connection with Bétharram is the reason why I am here, because I was a parent of a student 40 years ago.”

He then reacted to a report in Mediapart that he had been a member of the Bétharram board of directors in December 1985: “I never sat on it, at least to my knowledge,” the Prime Minister stated. He added: “I have no memory of entering the school. I never went to Bétharram as a parent, although I was a parent who was not very regular.”

This is a "very important" hearing for the victims, François Bayrou told MPs.

"This hearing is very important for the girls and boys who have been victims of sexual violence for decades, in Bétharram and elsewhere."

Facing the commission of inquiry into school violence, the Prime Minister also paid tribute to "the courage of those who revealed what needed to be revealed." However, he criticized what he considered to be an "instrumentalization" of these events, amplified by the power of social media.

The hearing of François Bayrou by the commission of inquiry begins.

Unions representing education inspectors and school principals deplored the lack of resources to combat violence in schools and the lack of transparency regarding inspections before the parliamentary commission of inquiry on Wednesday.

"For students to have a voice within the school, there still needs to be a climate of trust (...) There needs to be a medical-social center. Students' voices do not come spontaneously to the management teams," emphasized Laurent Kaufmann, federal secretary of the CFDT Education.

However, "too many establishments are lacking nurses and social workers," he added during a hearing by the commission of inquiry into the Bétharram affair, before that of Prime Minister François Bayrou on Wednesday afternoon.

Emmanuel Macron assured that he had "confidence" in François Bayrou to answer "all the questions" asked.

The president said he had "talked a lot" about the affair with him, and found him "devastated," particularly by his daughter Hélène's revelations about her being physically assaulted by a priest at a summer camp . Relatives of the priest told Libération on Wednesday that Mr. Bayrou had been informed at the time of a "slap" given to his daughter.

Former judge Christian Mirande believes that François Bayrou "exaggerated" the Bétharram affair by initially denying that he had come to see him in 1998 to discuss a rape case in Bétharram.

"He was wrong to say first that he had not met me," the former magistrate declared in an interview with Sud Ouest .

"He allegedly said: 'I know the former judge, I saw him, we talked about what the press was reporting,' and that was it, we didn't talk about it anymore! But he made the soufflé rise," continues Christian Mirande.

"He's been my neighbor for fifty years," Mr. Bayrou said of this key witness on February 18 in the National Assembly, after initially denying having met him at the time. "Have we been able to talk about this case? Probably about the atmosphere, the establishment, never about the case," added the Prime Minister. Carricart, the cleric accused of rape.

Members of the Bétharram inquiry committee claim that François Bayrou was alerted to the violence and failed to act, even though he was Minister of National Education at the time of the events and President of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques General Council.

>> Our article here - What awaits François Bayrou before the Commission of Inquiry

This hearing is an opportunity for the Prime Minister to respond to these accusations of lying.

An unlikely duo. At the head of the National Assembly's commission of inquiry into Bétharram are two MPs who are complete opposites.

Our article here - Paul Vannier-Violette Spillebout, the unlikely LFI-Macronist duo who are auditioning Bayrou

Paul Vannier of La France Insoumise and Violette Spillebout of Ensemble pour la République, Emmanuel Macron's party, are the two elected rapporteurs of the parliamentary commission of inquiry tasked with hearing Prime Minister François Bayrou.

Victims of physical and sexual violence at the Bétharram high school have high expectations for François Bayrou's hearing.

>> Our article here - Bayrou "has his responsibility": what the victims of the Prime Minister's hearing expect

For some, the Prime Minister bears responsibility in the affair.

Hello and welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to François Bayrou's hearing before the Bétharram Commission of Inquiry.

The Prime Minister is expected at 5 p.m. at the National Assembly to explain what he knew or did not know about this case of sexual and physical violence against students at this agricultural high school in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region.