Macron says trust in France institutions ‘at stake’ after girl’s killing

French President Emmanuel Macron. Picture: Ludovic Marin / AFP President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said he feared for trust in France’s institutions after a botched investigation into the main suspect in an 11-year-old girl’s likely murder triggered public outrage. The body of the girl, named as Lyhanna, was found last week after she went missing on May 29 in the southwestern town of Fleurance.

The suspect, a 41-year-old father of a school friend of the victim, had twice before been formally accused of raping a child, but investigations had been dropped or had stalled. “It is trust in our institutions that is at stake,” Macron told a cabinet meeting, according to government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon. But he called for calm after nationwide anger over alleged failings in dealing with cases of sexual abuse of children, adding: “We do not respond to a tragedy with shouting.” “It is obvious that there have been clear malfunctions.

We must now understand what falls under individual responsibilities and what concerns systemic lapses within all the public services involved,” Macron said. Around 60 000 people protested across the country on Monday, some demanding the resignation of Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin. Darmanin has refused to step down, but apologised for what he called a “huge failure” in the Lyhanna case.

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Authorities have not yet announced the results of a forensic examination of the girl’s body or charged the suspect, who has been named as Jerome B. One woman had filed a legal complaint against the suspect in August last year, accusing him of repeatedly raping her daughter, who was born in 2014, between September 2024 and May 2025.

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