French PM's muddled and misleading comments to inquiry into Catholic school abuse scandal
French Prime Minister François Bayrou gave a laborious, muddled, misleading and aggressive presentation when he appeared before a parliamentary commission hearing on Wednesday into his role in the scandal of repeated sexual assaults and physical cruelty against pupils at a Catholic school in his political fiefdom in south-west France. He launched into attacks against the commission itself, against a whistle-blowing teacher, the media in general and Mediapart, which began revealing the depth of the scandal earlier this year, in particular. Mathilde Goanec, David Perrotin and Antton Rouget report.
ArrivingArriving at the National Assembly, the French lower house, for questioning by the parliamentary commission investigating the problems of violence within French schools, François Bayrou placed a book, clearly visible, on the desk allocated to him. Entitled La Meute (meaning “the pack”, as in a pack of wolves) and published last week, it is a revealing and unflattering investigation, into the workings of the radical-left party, La France Insoumise, to which Member of Parliament (MP) Paul Vannier, co-rapporteur of the commission, belongs.
