French PM says he will sue over school abuse cover-up allegations

French Prime Minister François Bayrou has said he plans to sue French outlet Mediapart for publishing an investigation which claims he lied to defend a priest accused of raping a student in the late 1990s.

The alleged incident is said to have occurred at Notre-Dame de Bétharram school — located near Lourdes in the French Pyrénées-Atlantiques department — which is facing around a hundred complaints of violence, sexual assault and rape.

The complaints relate to events which took place between the 1970s and 1990s, with the Pau public prosecutor launching an investigation more than a year ago.

Mediapart also reported that Bayrou’s own children attended Notre-Dame de Bétharram, and that his wife taught catechism at the institution.

During questions to the government at France’s National Assembly on Tuesday, the prime minister told MPs that “everything is false, and a defamation complaint will be lodged”.

MP Paul Vannier of the far-left La France Insoumise asked Bayrou, “Why didn’t you protect the Notre-Dame de Bétharram pupils who were victims of paedophile violence?”

“You have always claimed that you knew nothing, saw nothing and heard nothing,” he added. “The chronology reconstructed by Mediapart, Le Monde and the local press contradicts you entirely.”

“I was never informed of this sexual violence,” replied the prime minister, who went on to deride the story as part of a smear attempt.

“The method is now very well known to the French. They’ve seen it time and time again: as soon as someone is in a position of responsibility, scandals are invented.“

Bayrou said that the first complaint against Notre-Dame de Bétharram was lodged several months after he left his position as minister of education, which he held from 1993-1997.

However, Mediapart reported that complaints of physical violence committed by a supervisor at the school were in fact lodged in 1996, when Bayrou was still in government.

Last March, Bayrou told French newspaper Le Parisien that “rumour had it that, 25 years ago, there had been slaps at boarding school”, but maintained that he had “never heard (…) of any sexual risks.”