the essential
The emblematic former mayor of the commune of Hauts-de-Seine intends to make a request to the courts to have his sentence of ineligibility annulled and to run in the 2026 municipal elections.
Will Patrick Balkany make a resounding return to Levallois-Perret town hall? This is what BFMTV tells us this Thursday, November 28. According to the continuous news channel, the former elected official would seek to have the ineligibility sentence handed down against him in 2019 annulled. At the time, he was convicted of tax fraud and money laundering with his wife, Isabelle Balkany. Together they had hidden assets estimated at 13 million euros from the tax authorities.
According to a judicial source cited by the media, the lawyers of the 76-year-old former mayor filed their request on October 25 “to obtain what is called an increase in his additional penalty of ineligibility.” He was also sentenced to four and a half years in prison, and his ineligibility sentence was to last ten years.
“We repay 1,300 euros each month”
“It was already five years ago. I was in prison for almost a year and I wore an electronic bracelet. And with Isabelle, we repay 1,300 euros to the tax authorities every month. So, yes, I asked that the penalty of ineligibility stops so that I can represent myself,” confirmed the main person concerned, quoted by the channel. He also claims to be still very popular in Levallois-Perret, where the inhabitants never cease to show him sympathy every time he walks in the town.
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“We are struggling, like all French people…” Isabelle Balkany talks about her retirement and estimates that she would need “at least 5,000 euros” to live
The request was sent to the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, and should be the subject of a study, according to BFMTV, which mentions a closed hearing in the coming weeks, for which Patrick Balkany should be summoned.
