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Anne Hidalgo testified before the Senate over abuse allegations in Paris after-school programs
The former Paris mayor said institutions failed to protect children and described the situation as a collective failure. She also pointed to internal breakdowns in how warnings were handled inside the city administration.
Former Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo testified on Tuesday before the French Senate inquiry commission on the prevention and handling of sexual violence in the after-school sector. She said institutions had failed to protect children and called it a collective failure.
According to France Info, Hidalgo said responsibility for that failure extended to the Paris city government, local authorities, the national education system, the police and the courts, despite steps that had been taken and despite awareness of sexual abuse suffered by children in France.
Hidalgo, who along with her successor Emmanuel Grégoire is the subject of criminal investigations following complaints by several families, including for alleged failure to assist a person in danger, said she had tried to put procedures in place from 2015 to 2026. Even so, she added, predators still entered the system and assaulted children.
France Info reported that Hidalgo did not agree to describe the problem as systemic within the after-school sector, as requested by senator Agnès Evren, the commission’s rapporteur. Le Monde, for its part, said the former mayor acknowledged dysfunctions but refused to bear sole responsibility for what happened.
Hidalgo also said the first warnings, ten years ago, were not handled satisfactorily within her administration. She referred to malfunctions and breakdowns in information chains, and regretted that about half of the recommendations in a 2015 report by the General Inspectorate of the City of Paris, which she had commissioned, were not properly implemented because her instructions were not followed.
Among those directives, France Info said, was the immediate suspension of any staff member who had been reported, along with a ban on that employee being placed back in contact with children.
The Senate commission was also due to hear later in the day from Patrick Bloche, Hidalgo’s first deputy from 2024 to 2026 and the official in charge of school affairs. Current Socialist mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, who served at City Hall for ten years before moving to the National Assembly in 2024, was scheduled to testify on Wednesday.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
