Daughter of French PM reveals she was abused at scandal-hit school

By Elizabeth Pineau, Michel Rose and Juliette Jabkhiro

PARIS (Reuters) - The daughter of French Prime Minister François Bayrou has described being assaulted by a priest at a Catholic school in the 1980s, echoing fellow former pupils in complaints that have prompted scrutiny of her father's time as education minister.

The eldest of Bayrou's six children, Helene Perlant, 53, a teacher unknown to the public until this week, said in a book published on Thursday that she was beaten up by a now-deceased priest at the school in the 1980s when she was 14.

"He grabbed me by the hair, dragged me along the ground for several meters, and kicked me all over my body, especially in the stomach," Perlant told weekly Paris Match in an interview, adding that she was so shocked that she wet herself.

Former pupils at the Notre-Dame de Betharram school near Pau in the southwest have filed dozens of complaints against staff and religious members of the school for physical and sexual abuse.

Prosecutors in Pau opened a preliminary investigation early last year but said that many of the allegations fell under the statute of limitations, which is 30 years for rape and 10 years for sexual assault.

Bayrou has been accused by political opponents of lying when he said he did not know about the extent of the scandal when he was education minister from 1993-1997, although some complaints had been made by then.

Perlant said she had not told her father about her own experience until this week.

"The real question is one of denial, at the individual and collective level. Not one of lies," Perlant said.

Bayrou, who is still the mayor of Pau, sent three of his six children to the school, where his wife taught religious education. He is scheduled to be grilled by lawmakers on May 14 after they opened a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal.

'DEVASTATED'

An official from Bayrou's office said the premier was in a state of shock after learning what his daughter went through, but maintained he was not at fault and did not lie, and that the scandal was being weaponised by political opponents.

"He is devastated. The doting father he is has just got a big slap in the face," the official told Reuters. "Helene's account backs up what Francois Bayrou said all along: that he didn't know."

Some lawmakers have floated threats of a no-confidence vote in Bayrou, who has led a centrist minority government since December last year, and could be toppled if left-wing and far-right parties unite to vote against him.

Bayrou told lawmakers in February "he had never been informed of any violence, let alone sexual violence". He later said he had ordered an inspection of the school in 1996 in light of some complaints and that its findings were "reassuring".

The special French court that handles cases involving government ministers, the Republic's Court of Justice, has dismissed two reports from opposition lawmakers against Bayrou, saying there was no sign of wrongdoing in his former capacity as education minister at this stage.

But the court said it could re-explore the case should more details come to light. A school alumnus, whose name was not revealed, has also filed a legal complaint against Bayrou for failure to report a crime, according to French media.

His education minister ordered an administrative inspection of the school in March; its findings have yet to be made public.

The author of the book in which Bayrou's daughter tells her story, Alain Esquere, a former pupil at the school, is behind a social media campaign launched in 2023 to collect the stories of alleged abuse at the school between the 1950s and 2010.

Contacted by Reuters, management at the school, which has been renamed Le Beau Rameau, did not immediately return a request for comment. The school has yet to make any official statement about the complaints.

The scandal has fuelled a broader reckoning in France over the culture and oversight of private religious schools, particularly boarding institutions that have operated with limited transparency.

(Writing by Michel Rose; editing by Andrew Heavens and Philippa Fletcher)