French Prime Minister Franois Bayrou is fighting allegations that he ignored reports of the widespread sexual abuse of minors at a Catholic boarding school in southwestern Barn, his political bastion for several decades, in a case that has weakened his already fragile minority government and sparked calls for greater scrutiny of Frances Church-run private schools.

A self-styled son of the soil from rural southwest France,Franois Bayrouseldom misses a chance to tout his ties to his native Barn region, home to his hero Henri IV, the bon roi (good king) who united Frances Catholics and Protestants after decades of bloody strife.

But those ties came back to haunt the prime ministerthis week as he battled to contain acontroversyover rampant abuse of minors at a local Catholic boarding school where his wife once taught religion classes, and which several of his own children attended.

Bayrou, a veteran centrist tapped by PresidentEmmanuel Macronin December to end months ofpolitical crisis, was summoned by lawmakers on Wednesday to clarify whether he knew of the reports of violence and rape committed at Notre-Dame de Btharramover more than 40 years, between the 1970s and 2010.

The prime minister, who served as education minister in the 1990s in addition to holding local posts in Barn, told the National Assembly on Wednesday thatat no time was he warned of the alleged incidents, slamming what he described as artificial controversies.

His defence, however, has been undercut by a flurry of allegations by investigative websiteMediapart, which claimed to have evidence that Bayrouwas repeatedly informed of abuse at the school, failed to act on those reports and subsequently lied in parliament.

Warnings unheeded, letters unanswered

French prosecutors are investigating more than a hundred complaints concerning alleged violence,sexual assaultand rape committed at the boarding school, located at the foot of the Pyrnes, a short drive from Barns capital city of Pau, where Bayrou still serves as mayor.

In October 2023, several former pupils formed a group to share stories about the abuse they say they endured at the hands of clergymen, supervisors and others at Notre-Dame de Btharram. The oldest allegations date back to the 1950s.

Mediapart published the account of alleged former victim Jean-Marie Delbos, now age 78, which included the delivery receipt for a letter sent by registered post to Bayrou in March 2024, in which Delbosrecounted the repeated rapes he says he was subjected to by a clergyman at the school between 1957 and 1961.

Delbos said he never heard back from Bayrou, whose long political career has included stints as the head of multiple administrative bodies in theregion around Pau.

Back in 1996, Bayrou paid an official visit to the school following a complaint filed by the father of a 14-year-old pupil who was slapped so hard he lost part of his hearing in a case that sparked a public outcry. Then education minister, who had a son in the same class as the victim, Bayrou voiced support for the school, according to a report by regional newspaper Sud Ouest at the time that was cited by Mediapart.

Many people in Barn experiencedthese attacks (against Notre-Dame de Btharram)with a painful sense of injustice, Bayrou was quoted as saying.

A formerteacher at the school said she warned Bayrou and his wife about other cases of violence against pupils, adding that a school nurse had also written to the minister. In an interview with French weekly Le Point last year, the teacher recalledBayrou playing down her warnings and telling her she was no doubt exaggerating a bit.

When one of the schools directors, Father Pierre Silviet-Carricart, was placed under formal investigation two years later for the alleged rape of a 10-year-old pupil, Bayrou approached the judge in charge of the investigation to discuss the matter a meeting he initially denied and later acknowledged.

Speaking to Mediapart, the judge confirmed the meeting had taken place, adding that it revolved solely around the Silviet-Carricartcase, and that Bayrou was concerned because one of his sons was at the school.

Calls for Bayrous resignation

Mediaparts successive disclosures have sparked furious debatesin the National Assembly, Frances lower house of parliament, where left-wing opposition lawmakers have rounded on the prime minister and called for his resignation.

The many offices you held should have enabled you to protect these children, but for two decades you chose instead to remain silent, Paul Vannier, a lawmaker and former teacher fromthe hard-leftFrance Unbowedparty (LFI), told Bayrou in a heated exchange, lamenting a code of silence at the top of the state.

A politician who covers up such egregious matters, and also lies about them, cannot decently hold on to the prime ministers job, added fellow LFI lawmaker Manuel Bompard, blasting the total lack of reaction from Macrons camp, which has remained largely tight-lipped since the allegations first emerged.

More worryingly for Bayrou, who does not have a majority in Frances bitterly divided parliament, the more moderate Socialist opposition has also piled pressure on the prime minister, urging him to clarify what he knew about the alleged rapes and violence at Notre-Dame de Btharram.

We demand that all the light be shed on these crimes and on Franois Bayrou's knowledge of them, particularly when he served aseducation minister between 1993 and 1997, read a statement by the Socialist Party, whose decision to break ranks with allies on the left has helped Bayrou survive a string of no-confidence votes in recent weeks.

The embattled prime minister, meanwhile, has vowed to file a defamation complaint, telling lawmakers he would never have placed his children in the school had he been aware of the abuse taking place there.

Catholic schools in the spotlight

As well as damaging Bayrous minority government, the case has revived a long-standing debate on the lack of scrutiny of Frances private schools, most of them Catholic, which are required to follow the French national curriculum and meet certain educational standards in return for generous state subsidies. It comes on the heels of several high-profile child-abuse scandals involving the FrenchCatholic Church.

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Vannier, the LFI lawmaker, has called for the establishment of a parliamentary commission to shed full light on the failure to superviseprivate schools that are under contract with the state.

The reports of rampant abuse at Notre-Dame de Btharram have also triggered a flurry of reactions on social media, prompting ordinary citizens to come out with their accounts of violence endured in Catholic establishments or vent anger at politicians for covering up the abuse.

Attending a protest outside the private school near Pau, now renamed Le Beau Rameau, Delbos told French broadcaster BFMTV: Everyone knew, but everyone kept quiet.

Alain Esquerre, another former pupil who has emerged as a spokesperson for the plaintiffs, told Mediapart earlier this month that he had gathered numerous testimonies from victims who said they were violently beaten, forcibly masturbated or raped by the schools supervisors and priests when between the ages of 8 and 13.

On Thursday, Esquerre told France Info radio that he would file a substantial number of new complaints against Notre-Dame de Btharram in the coming weeks, promising more explosive revelations.

This article was translated fromthe French originalby Benjamin Dodman.

Originally published on France24