"A liberating moment," creation of an "independent authority" to prevent violence against children: what we know about the Prime Minister's hearing in the Bétharram affair

The Prime Minister thus rejected accusations of lying or leniency towards the management of the Notre-Dame de Bétharram middle school and high school, and reiterated under oath that he had no inside information on physical and sexual violence in this establishment other than through the press.

"The entire press wrote that this was going to be the place where the government's responsibility would be judged (...) and that it was basically over for me." "There were accusations that I could never respond to" and "we had there, for the first time, the opportunity to provide not denials, not arguments, but evidence" and "show that everything was baseless. And what was more shocking for me was that the victims were totally absent from these questions," he declared at the end of this hearing.

"Give a place to all those who cannot express themselves"

Faced with the Assembly's commission of inquiry , François Bayrou notably advocated the creation of an "independent authority" on violence against children.

This high authority would include "a scientific council" and a "victims' council" . It would concern "all educational establishments" but also "sports associations" , "cultural associations" , "families" , where it would focus in particular on "the issue of domestic violence" .

François Bayrou clarified that this proposal was inspired by a law recently adopted in Germany. "There is something there that would allow, that would deserve, to give a place to all those who cannot express themselves."

"We have a certain number of victims who are in great emotional difficulty, we need to support them in a personalized way, which no one is currently doing," reacted the spokesperson for a collective of victims of Bétharram, Alain Esquerre.

"We have proposed the creation of a structure that would be run by the victims, for the victims, we are waiting, we will see the conclusions, and today it is up to the State to take its responsibilities on this type of case," he recalled.

"Confusion strategy"

Finally, the two co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into School Violence, Paul Vannier and Violette Spillebout, expressed their differences on Thursday, the day after the Prime Minister's hearing, one asserting that he "lied" , the other claiming to believe him.

LFI MP Paul Vannier said, following François Bayrou's highly tense hearing on the Bétharram affair, that the latter had admitted to having "lied" in February when he was first questioned in the Assembly about his knowledge of the facts in the 1990s.

"François Bayrou, thanks to the oath, finally recognizes that his statements to the deputies, to the victims in recent months, were mendacious, were false," declared Paul Vannier on franceinfo.

"He also had a strategy of digression, of confusion," explained the deputy.

"Did the Prime Minister lie? Yes, on several occasions, here in the National Assembly, in several public statements he has made over the past two months. Did he lie under oath last night? It's too early for me to say, " Paul Vannier said later that morning at a press conference.

"I believe it."

"We do not draw the same conclusions as Paul Vannier," said his co-rapporteur, Renaissance MP Violette Spillebout, during the press conference.

She remembers from the hearing "an extremely vigorous, offensive defense (...) of a politician whose honor and integrity have been attacked for months by my colleague Paul Vannier."

On the subject of lies, "the Prime Minister, last night, replied under oath that he had never lied, that there were inaccuracies in his recollections, that these were meetings and discussions, readings, press articles from more than 30 years ago. And I believe him," she added.

For her part, the committee's chair, Socialist Fatiha Keloua-Hachi, believes: "It is still far too early" to know whether the Prime Minister lied during his hearing. "We must reread the minutes" and "review" the 5.5-hour hearing, she argued, before promising to take "the necessary measures (...) in due course."