François Bayrou's hearing on the Bétharram affair turns into a political confrontation

The committee's two rapporteurs had planned a hearing lasting approximately three hours; it lasted almost twice that length. For five and a half hours on Wednesday, May 14, François Bayrou answered questions from Paul Vannier (La France Insoumise, LFI, Val-d'Oise) and Violette Spillebout (Renaissance, Nord), as well as from other members of the committee of inquiry into violence in schools.

A very long, sometimes confusing, often tense hearing, which the Prime Minister, accused by his opponents of having covered up violence within the Catholic establishment Notre-Dame de Bétharram, judged as a "liberating moment" at the end of the exercise, believing that it was "the first time that [he] was able to defend himself" on this story.

However, it is not certain that this hearing will free François Bayrou from this Bétharram affair in which he has been mired for several months . The president of the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education, Fatiha Keloua Hachi (Socialist Party, Seine-Saint-Denis), judged the responses given by the Prime Minister harshly: "I found him confused, imprecise, sometimes even rude and aggressive towards us," lamented the Socialist MP, in unison with other opposition MPs who did not hide their disappointment at this highly anticipated moment. "A terrible missed opportunity " and an attitude "not up to the task ," said Sarah Legrain, LFI MP for Paris.

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