The Lyhanna affair has now gone beyond the scope of a news item to become a major political crisis. While Emmanuel Macron speaks of a “dysfunction” and calls for rapid responses, the drama relaunches the debate on the means of justice, the treatment of sexual violence and the protection of children in France.
No point waiting for the results of the autopsy of the body found Thursday evening, supposed to confirm the identity of the victim. The Lyhanna affair, this tragic drama which today moves the whole of France, is now a political affair. Maybe even an affair of state. Emmanuel Macron, traveling to Montenegro to attend a European Council, freed himself from the tacit rule which requires a President not to speak on French affairs when he is abroad, and reacted to the Gers drama yesterday morning with a brief very political speech.
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A “dysfunction” for Macron who defends his action
Faced with the legal journey of Jérôme Barella, suspect No. 1, involved in several cases of sexual assault, and the handling of the latest complaint for rape which targeted him since August 2025, the president – who expressed “the solidarity and affection of the entire Nation” to Lyhanna’s family – judged that there had been a “dysfunction” which is “unacceptable” in this matter. But the head of state immediately assured that “it is not a question of means” but of “responsibilities” which must be established by administrative investigations, entrusted since Wednesday to the General Inspectorate of Justice and the Inspectorate general of the national gendarmerie in order to identify possible shortcomings.
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“Since 2017, I have invited everyone to look at the resources that have been put into the gendarmerie, into the justice system. So it is a question of response, firmness, organization, responsibility,” the head of state wants to believe. Certainly, budgets have been increased over the past nine years, but the fact remains that today there are approximately 8,000 professional magistrates in France, or as many as 200 years ago for a population twice as large. It would take twice as much to catch up with the European average… and perhaps absorb the number of complaints for sexual violence which has more than doubled in France in ten years, with an investigation for rape now exceeding 12 to 18 months…
Lecornu wants the results of the investigation within two weeks
Emmanuel Macron, who indicated that he had exchanged “with the Minister of Justice, the Minister of the Interior and the Prime Minister”, meeting at the same time in Matignon with the Minister of Public Accounts David Amiel, asked that the administrative investigations be “as rapid as possible” and establish “responsibilities collective, systemic and possibly individual responsibilities” in order to “take all required measures”. “We must clarify what happened to Lyhanna, to her family and also potentially to all the other victims,” added Mr. Macron.
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Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who therefore summoned his ministers yesterday at 10:30 a.m. to Matignon, said he was “particularly shocked by this affair” and all agreed that the State must “know if all the warning signals were taken into account in time, if all the procedures worked.”
A question which took on particular relevance with the revelation, yesterday, of a new hiccup: the criminal circular prioritizing child victims would not have been “applied by the Auch prosecutor” in the handling of complaints against Jérôme Barella, according to a government source who spoke to AFP. “It is necessary to continue your mobilization concerning acts committed against children: physical or sexual violence must be the subject of particular vigilance and priority treatment”, stipulated in particular this criminal circular, signed and distributed last January by the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin, who announced that he would summon all the prosecutors generals at a working meeting at the Chancellery Monday morning.
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The latter did not appreciate this premature indictment. No responsibility can be “mentioned” nor any sanction “pronounced” at this stage concerning the judicial dysfunctions which could have led to the Lyhanna affair, affirmed yesterday the Conference of General Prosecutors and that of Republic Prosecutors.
Our inability to protect children
The tragic Lyhanna affair also appears to be the emerging part of a major societal iceberg, interspersed with the Bétharram sexual violence affair: the incapacity of society to protect children from violent adults and to give the justice system the means to properly deal with this type of folder. “The Lyhanna affair is not a news item. It is a social fact which illustrates the systemic incapacity of our society to protect women and children from sexual violence”, summarized Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the Ecologists.
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“The dysfunctions that ministers seem to be discovering today have been known, documented and denounced for years by professionals, associations and parliamentarians. In vain. Without the murder, rapes would always be ignored. Overwhelming”, said former PS minister and senator Laurence Rossignol. “Why aren’t we taking the means to stop child crime?” protested Martine Brousse, president of the La Voix de l’Enfant association, while Me Jean Sannier, lawyer for Innocence in Danger, recalled yesterday that “160,000 children [sont] sexually assaulted per year, that’s one child every three minutes…
“The time for society to become more aware has finally arrived,” wants to believe Sarah El Haïry, High Commissioner for Children, who participated yesterday in the world meeting of the Alliance of 52 pioneering countries to put an end to violence against children, organized in Turin under the aegis of the United Nations.
The time is no longer for words, for good intentions, for administrative investigations quick to appoint lampoons or for laws made under the influence of emotion. Deeper actions are needed. For Lyhanna and all the victims we failed to protect.
