New testimony from his own daughter undermines Prime Minister François Bayrou's claims that he was not aware of systemic abuse at the Bétharram school, a Catholic institution several of his children attended and where his wife taught. Hélène Perlant, who goes by her mother's last name, on Thursday, April 24, said her father had in fact met in 1998 with a judge investigating the abuses, contrary to what he has publicly stated.

"I think [my father] doesn't remember, but I was there the evening he returned from Judge Mirande's house," Perlant said, speaking on A l'air libre, a program by investigative outlet Mediapart, alongside Alain Esquerre, the founder of a victims' association and co-author of the book Le Silence de Bétharram ("The Silence of Bétharram"). She said her father had told her at the time: "Don't repeat this, I swore to respect the investigation's confidentiality."

"Do you think that's possible?" he later asked her about the accusations against Father Pierre Carricart, the former head of Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram, who was charged with rape. Perlant, then a former student at the school, seemed not to believe these revelations at the time.

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