At the origin of the Orpéa nursing home scandal, journalist Victor Castanet published a new investigation this Wednesday, September 18, “Les Ogres”, on the excesses of private nursery groups and the leniency shown by the State towards them.
This is an earthquake that should shake the world of private daycare centers. This Wednesday, September 18, 2024, the book “The Ogres“, by Victor Castanet, who became known two years ago with the publication of his investigation into the Orpéa group’s nursing homes. This time, the investigative journalist is publishing a book on the failings and methods of certain groups of private daycare centers with regard to young children. He also implicates Aurore Bergé, former Minister of the Family.
“Blows, scratches, punishments, humiliations”
In the book “The Ogres“, published by Flammarionthe journalist particularly condemns the company People&Baby, as well as the French Federation of Nursery Companies (FFEC). The former CEO of People&Baby, Christophe Durieux, “controversial heavyweight in the sector”, indicates The Parisianis even described as the “Bernard Tapie of daycare centers”. The first extracts revealed in the press paint a catastrophic picture of the situation and a sector adrift. The example of a private daycare center People&Baby in Villeneuve-d’Ascq (North) is striking.
Victor Castanet discusses the mistreatment of nine children: “The children are punished in the dark for several hours without a pacifier, without a comfort blanket,” he explained this Tuesday morning on France Inter. He continues, about the child of a certain Zohra, mother, whose first name has been changed. The latter saw her son’s health deteriorate, without really understanding the causes: “At first, he had nightmares, then the weight curve broke, this is what we find in other cases. Gradually, the crises became more and more severe”. Traces of blows on her child’s body were found. The mother then decided to file a complaint, but she was not the only one, other families made reports, as did some nursery professionals.
Still on France Inter, the investigative journalist returned to the homicide of a young girl in 2022, poisoned with drain cleaner: “I discovered that the professional had been hired before that by another group, and that she had been fired after five days,” he specifies. In a logic of cost optimization, Victor Castanet highlights an abundance of “low-cost”, and its consequences on children. In an interview with AFP, he affirms that some children have received “beatings, scratches, punishments in the dark, humiliation, deprivation of food”. Others “still have regular nightmares”, and have “developmental delays”, regrets the author. He even uses the term “voracity” of certain groups of private daycare centers, including People&Baby.
A “non-aggression pact” between the former Minister for the Family, Aurore Bergé, and the FFEC?
“Some groups have slashed prices by promising that they would do just as well and this movement has been accompanied by a certain number of town halls, communities and ministries which, between two offers, have almost always chosen the cheapest one”, denounces Victor Castanet in the columns of AFP. Through his words, he notably blames the French State, and the former Minister responsible for the Family between July 2023 and January 2024, Aurore Bergé. “The French administration insisted and did not want to question its operation”, he continues. For him, the former minister has “shown a form of leniency towards private actors”.
The investigative journalist accuses Aurore Bergé in particular of having made a “non-aggression pact” with Elsa Hervy, general delegate of the French Federation of Daycare Enterprises, the lobby of private daycare centers. He confided to AFP that there was a request “never to criticize government policy and to support the minister” to the FFEC. In return, beyond the “leniency”, Aurore Bergé allegedly “transmitted their messages during her speeches”, reveals Victor Castanet.
In a press release, the FFEC stated that it would be at the disposal of the courts “if the facts reported in this journalistic investigation were to have legal consequences”, while condemning “with the strongest firmness the scandalous practices revealed which disregard the values of our profession and the best interests of the children in care”. Finally, according to Victor Castanet, the former minister Aurore Bergé prevented the carrying out of a parliamentary inquiry requested by a member of parliament for La France insoumise (LFI). This information was denied by the main person concerned, who denounced an “ideological bias on the part of LFI”.