Report alleges French PM ‘failed to act’ on abuse claims in 90s – POLITICO

Report alleges French PM ‘failed to act’ on abuse claims in 90s – POLITICO

Bayrou’s own daughter said earlier this year that she had suffered abuse at a sister school and had not informed her father.

The current prime minister and former education minister initially claimed to have been completely unaware of the allegations. He later admitted to learning about them through press reports, maintaining he was unaware of their full extent. However, his defense suffered a blow after testimony from an investigator and a judge involved in the case alleged that Bayrou had been aware of the details of the allegations.

Appearing before the investigative panel in May, Bayrou decried the panel’s line of questioning as politically motivated and insisted he had “never hidden anything.”

Bayrou’s office did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment following the report’s publication Wednesday.

The report includes gruesome accounts of violence and degrading punishments inflicted against students. It concludes that, for decades, “Bétharram was the setting for an onslaught of violence that cannot be reduced to isolated incidents.”

The scandal has dogged the prime minister since early in his tenure, dragging his polling ratings to historic lows.

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