François Bayrou

The case concerns assistants to MEPs paid by the European Parliament who allegedly worked, at least partly, for the UDF and then MoDem. Bayrou left the Ministry of Justice in June 2017 amid the investigation and was formally placed under investigation in 2019 for complicity in embezzlement of public funds. On 5 February 2024, the criminal court acquitted him on the benefit of the doubt concerning his personal knowledge of the system, while MoDem and several other defendants were convicted. The prosecution appealed. The appeal trial opened in Paris on 9 September 2026 and is scheduled to continue until 5 October. The disputed amount at this stage of the appeal is approximately €293,253 across ten contracts.

Attribution

Accused

The scandal involving physical and sexual abuse committed over decades at Notre-Dame de Bétharram placed Bayrou at the centre of controversy about what he knew while serving as Education Minister and a local elected official. In 2025, he initially claimed never to have been informed of acts giving rise to complaints or reports, before acknowledging knowledge of a slapping incident that led to a conviction in 1996. Archives show that he had publicly defended the institution that year following an inspection. Former judge Christian Mirande also described a 1998 meeting during which the case was discussed, while Bayrou denied any intervention intended to influence the judiciary. A parliamentary commission subsequently documented serious systemic failures in oversight of private institutions.

Attribution

Command responsibility

As Prime Minister, Bayrou used the expression 'feeling of being overwhelmed' ('sentiment de submersion') about immigration on television, language historically associated with the Front national and later the Rassemblement national. He subsequently stood by the term, provoking anger among Socialists and criticism within parts of the governing bloc at the very time his government was negotiating its budgetary survival.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Bayrou presented a €43.8 billion fiscal recovery plan for 2026, notably including a freeze on much public and social expenditure and the abolition of two public holidays, with Easter Monday and 8 May cited. The emblematic measure immediately attracted opposition from the left and RN alike and proved highly unpopular in opinion polls.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Faced with political deadlock over his budget plan, Bayrou called a confidence vote in the National Assembly. MPs refused to grant confidence, causing the fall of his government and his resignation. The outcome was a direct political rebuke of his budget strategy and his decision to submit his government to the vote.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

While Minister of Justice, Bayrou called a Radio France investigative official in June 2017 to complain about a journalistic investigation into MoDem assistants, a contact denounced as pressure. In October 2017, after leaving government, he obtained investigating judge Charlotte Bilger's personal number, called her after a search of MoDem headquarters and then sent a text asking, among other things, whether his IT specialist could attend the opening of sealed evidence. The judge recorded these exchanges in the case file.

State of the evidence

Disputed

Attribution

Personally implicated

During the 2002 presidential campaign in Strasbourg, Bayrou slapped a boy aged approximately 10 to 11 whom he accused of attempting to pick his pocket. The incident, filmed by television cameras, became a widely discussed episode of his campaign and was frequently recalled later in debates about violence against children.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

As Minister of National Education, François Bayrou politically supported revision of the Falloux law to expand local government assistance for capital investment by state-contracted private schools. On 13 January 1994, the Constitutional Council struck down the central provision of the legislation, particularly on equality grounds. The reform had triggered major mobilisation by secular education supporters: the Paris demonstration on 16 January attracted 260,000 people according to police and up to one million according to organisers.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility