François Bayrou’s daughter gives a shock testimony on violence in the Catholic establishment

Is François Bayrou’s political future linked to the revelations that emerge on the scandal around the college-the rhycée of Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)? The clouds accumulate. An accusing book, signed by the spokesperson for the victims, Alain Esquerre, and citing the testimony of one of the Prime Minister’s daughters, relaunches the case. In Betharram’s silence, the biggest affair of pedophilia ever revealed in France (Ed. Michel Lafon), Hélène Péllant says that she was dried up “punches, kicking all over the body, especially in the belly”, by a priest member of the institution. The latter assures that her father knew nothing about it. The Prime Minister is called upon to explain himself before the National Assembly on May 14.

(Ed. Michel Lafon), Hélène Péllant says that she was dried up “punches, kicking all over the body, especially in the belly”, by a priest member of the institution. The latter assures that her father knew nothing about it. The Prime Minister is called upon to explain himself before the National Assembly on May 14.

This establishment of Catholic education is denounced before the courts by former students, who evoke violence, sometimes sexual, suffered between the late 1950s and the years 2010. Two hundred complaints have been filed since February 2024.

Three of his six children educated in this establishment

To what extent did the current head of government know these claims? He vehemently claims to have known nothing. But the question deserves to be asked. The ex-deputy of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques from 1986 to 1993, then from 1997 to 1999, finally from 2002 to 2012, knew the establishment where he placed three of his six children and where his wife taught catechism.

Asked about his links with the director of Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram, accused in May 1998 of sexual violence on minors and whose body was found in 2000 in the Tiber, in Rome, the head of government had this convoluted response: “My wife knew Father Carricart but I do not know all those that my wife knows. »»

An inspection in 1996

As early as 1995, a gendarmerie survey brought together overwhelming testimonies on collective corrections and punishment, including in the middle of the night, inflicted on children. As president of the General Council of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, from 1992 to 2001, François Bayrou had granted, as the law allows, subsidies to the establishment. Minister of National Education between 1993 and 1997, he diligent, it was true, an inspection in 1996 which revealed no breach.

Several contradictions

However, the denials of François Bayrou are in contradiction with the chronology of the facts. Arrested in the National Assembly on February 11, he retorts solemnity: “I assert that I was never informed of anything, violence, a fortiori sexual, never. In this case, why did you ask for an inspection in 1996? In fact, four days later, after having received the association of victims of Betharram, the Prime Minister corrects his words: “I knew for a complaint filed for a slap. For sexual abuse, I had never heard of it. Two testimonials, under oath, before the deputies, however invoke his words. Former investigating judge in Pau, Christian Mirande remembers a conversation in 1998 with François Bayrou. While educating a rape complaint against Father Carricart, the deputy wanted to know if he had to worry about his last son, educated in Betharram. More seriously, a former gendarme, Alain Hontangs, in charge of the investigation, reported, on April 10, to have heard from the judge that the elected official would have intervened with the Attorney General.

Reportant, Father Carricart is, to the surprise of the investigators, released two weeks later. François Bayrou has dryly refuted these statements: “The judges and the gendarmes, you know, it is wrong like the others. The case takes a political turn. In February, the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, asked the head of government to resign “in conscience”. The deputy Manuel Bompard (LFI) evokes “a state scandal”.

Oath hearing

How did his father noticed anything at the time? On May 14, the Prime Minister will be heard under oath by a parliamentary commission of inquiry to which, according to a Matignon counselor, “he wishes to reserve his responses”. “All questions will be asked as to other former education ministers on their intervention or inaction in the face of these systemic abuses,” explains the Violette Spillebout (Renaissance), co -rapping the commission. And there will be, when we submitted our report in June, political consequences because the responsibility of the State is engaged. »»

Until the government falls? “The political situation is already very fragile,” dodges the deputy. A 2026 budget in preparation under the sign of austerity, an RN increasingly tempted by a vote of censorship, a left divided on the question, a Prime Minister whose moral authority is weakened … Until May 14, at least, François Bayrou enters into a turbulence zone. What did he know, and when? This is the question to which he will have to answer under oath.