Bétharram: what to remember from François Bayrou's hearing before the parliamentary commission of inquiry

For three months, the controversy has stuck to the Prime Minister like Captain Haddock's Band-Aid. What did François Bayrou know about the physical, sexual, and psychological assaults at the private Catholic school Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram? Did he seek to protect the Béarn school where his wife worked and his children attended, including Hélène Perlant, his daughter, herself a victim who has just testified?

The mayor of Pau, a former MP for the constituency and former president of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departmental council, has repeatedly assured the national assembly that he knew nothing. However, he allegedly lied 14 times , according to Mediapart's tally. The commission of inquiry before which François Bayrou is appearing this Wednesday must shed light on the facts. The Prime Minister cannot, this time, lie without risking prosecution for perjury.

After raising his hand and saying "I swear," François Bayrou insisted on explaining why this hearing was "very important. " "Finally..." he said, before forcing the committee to listen to an opening statement that he was theoretically not entitled to, given the committee's operating rules.

"During this entire period when the controversy was about me, there were hundreds of articles and thousands of tweets to implicate me. I thought every day that it was on them (the victims, editor's note) that the attention should have been focused," began the Pau resident, who considers himself a "political target" victim of "manoeuvre" and "instrumentalisation" with "the weapon of scandal".

The hearing quickly became tense. It took the intervention of the committee chair, Fatiha Keloua-Hachi, for the matter to be brought back into focus, after François Bayrou detailed his "link with Bétharram" dating back "almost a quarter of a century." "This hearing is that of the Prime Minister, the President of the General Council and Minister of Education," the Socialist interrupted. A way of reminding everyone that it is not the student's father who is being invited to speak.

More information to come…