French Prime Minister François Bayrou is facing his sixth impeachment motion in the shadow of the case of decades of systematic abuse, sexual assaults and rapes at the Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram Catholic educational institution. The French opposition accuses him of lying about the case.

The impeachment motion was tabled by the Socialist Party, the only faction of the French left that appears ready to cooperate to some extent with the Bayrou government, unlike the environmentalists, communists and the radical left, who rule out the possibility.

The impeachment motion will be debated this afternoon. There is no chance it will pass without the support of the far-right National Rally.

The text refers to violence against students at the Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram institution in southwestern France, where some of the children of France’s current prime minister attended.

Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram, with its 200-year history, attended by the scions of the good families of southwestern France, as well as students coming from all walks of life, has been the focus of an investigation into the use of violent corporal punishment for correctional purposes, sexual assault and rape, threats and humiliation over decades.

A total of 112 lawsuits have been filed with the Po prosecutor’s office, which began an investigation in 2024 into events that occurred mostly in the 1970s and 1990s.

François Bayrou, 73, served as education minister from 1993 to 1997.

Although he claims that he was “never informed” of crimes and offences at Bétharram, he claimed that he ordered a general inspection when he was informed, in 1996, of the filing of the first complaint by a student, a classmate of one of his sons, of a violent slap by the headmaster of the institution which caused him to lose 40 per cent of his hearing.

“Do you think we would send our children to educational institutions where there were suspicions or allegations of such things happening?”
The French prime minister told the French National Assembly.

However, many MPs accused him of lying before parliament.

There is also the police officer in charge of the investigation against Father Caricard, former director of the Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram foundation, who is accused of rape in 1998, referring to Francois Bayrou’s “intervention” with the justice system at the time when he was a local MP.

The judge investigating the 1998 rape case also told several media outlets that François Bayrou “took the trouble to go to see him” when the priest was in custody, but “without ever speaking about the case.”

Yesterday, the prime minister insisted that he had “never, near or far” interfered with justice and went on the offensive, blaming the next socialist government of Lionel Jospin, who succeeded the government in which he held the education ministry. The Justice Minister of the Jospin government, Elisabeth Gigu, called it “wretched political warfare”.

France has been sailing in murky waters since the dissolution of the National Assembly in mid-June and the calling of elections after which the French National Assembly is divided into three blocs: the left, centre-right and far-right.

Apart from the Bétharram affair, the left accuses the Bayrou government of making excessive concessions to the far right. The Socialist Party is particularly critical of the polemical debate launched by Justice Minister Gerald Darmanen on the law of the land. Bayrou is also criticized for his recent statements about a “feeling of a migratory deluge” in France.

François Bayrou served briefly as justice minister in 2017 . He resigned over an investigation into fictitious jobs.