The rapporteur for the “Family” branch for the social security financing bill for 2025, Louis Boyard, wants to hear the resigning minister Aurore Bergé in the National Assembly because of the accusations of collusion with the private nursery lobby brought against her.
The resigning Minister Delegate for Families, Aurore Bergé, is implicated in the investigative book The Ogres by Victor Castanet, who denounces the excesses of private daycare centers in France. She is notably accused of collusion with the head of the private daycare center lobby, Elsa Hervy, delegate of the French federation of daycare companies.
This is why the deputy and rapporteur of the “Family” branch for the social security financing bill for 2025, Louis Boyard, wants to hear the resigning minister at the National Assembly, BFMTV learned this Wednesday, September 18. He also wants the presidents of private nursery structures to be heard.
“The lobbies of private daycare centers have allowed the installation of a system of mistreatment of newborns, sacrificed on the altar of money and profitability. Aurore Bergé has sealed a pact with them. These people must be held accountable, this system cannot continue,” declared the rebellious Louis Boyard to BFMTV.
An audition at the end of September or beginning of October?
In an invitation that the MP wishes to deliver personally to Aurore Bergé, it is written that this hearing, lasting “an hour and a half”, could “for example be held on the afternoon of Friday 27 September or Friday 4 October”.
“As part of this hearing, Mr Boyard would like to question you in particular on the action you have taken, as Minister of Solidarity and Families, in the nursery sector, in the second half of 2023,” it is specified.
Private daycare centers in turmoil: what are they accused of?
The investigation book The Ogres claims that the former LR elected official would have used all her weight to avoid a commission of inquiry after several scandals in private nurseries, the publication of two books denouncing baby “factories” and an alarming report from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS). If this commission of inquiry finally took place, Aurore Bergé preferred to support the creation of a flash mission with much less powers and a much shorter duration.
The resigning minister responded to the first accusations, explaining in particular to BFMTV that she had “changed the law to guarantee the controls of large private groups” implicated in the investigative book. She refers to an amendment voted by Parliament to “strengthen control in childcare establishments”.
Aurore Bergé also assures us that she has “strengthened the culture of control” by launching the creation of an abuse alert system and the mission to evaluate micro-crèches. Or that she has conditioned “the State’s resources on the revaluation of the working conditions of early childhood professionals”.
In this work The Ogres, signed by independent journalist Victor Castanet who had already denounced the excesses of retirement homes In The Gravediggersthe practices of private nurseries are being singled out, among others financial “voracity”case of abuse or even staff burnout.
Anthony Lebbos with Juliette Brossault
