Patrick Balkany plans to run again in the 2026 municipal elections in Levallois-Perret. But the man is still ineligible since his conviction in 2019, a decision that he wants to annul and which should not have been taken by the courts according to him.
Patrick Balkany wants to return to his office at the town hall of Levallois-Perret. The man who was mayor of this town in Hauts-de-Seine for more than 30 years, from 1983 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2020, has nevertheless been prevented from participating in an election since his final sentence to 10 years of ineligibility for fraud tax in 2019. A sentence which was accompanied by four and a half years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros. But to pursue his objective, the 76-year-old man took legal action and requested the annulment of his ineligibility sentence reveals BFMTV this Thursday, November 28. The request was filed on October 25, a judicial source told the media.
Patrick Balkany’s request, transmitted to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, must be the subject of a “study” before a closed hearing at the criminal court scheduled for the coming weeks, adds AFP. The precise date has not been communicated. The former mayor of Levallois-Perret will have to defend his case at the hearing before hoping to be able to run in the 2026 municipal elections. The septuagenarian has already prepared his response to the remarks concerning his conviction and that of his wife and believes he has served his sentence: “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 every month 300 euros to the tax authorities.
“Penalties of ineligibility should not exist”
A passage before the magistrates necessary before trying to convince the voters of Levallois-Perret. However, it is the opinion of the latter which matters most to Patrick Balkany, who considered that judges do not have to decide on the right of each person to be able or not to stand in an election. “Penalties of ineligibility should not exist”, launched the former convicted councilor to the Parisian this Thursday, November 28.
A statement which echoes political and judicial news as a sentence of ineligibility was requested against Marine Le Pen as part of the trial on FN parliamentary assistants. Such sanctions should not be able to be imposed “neither for me nor for Marine Le Pen”, added Patrick Balkany. And the politician added that “the magistrates always judge ‘in the name of the French people'” and that they “should stop”. “It is up to the voters to decide on the names of their representatives,” he said. BFMTV. A certain number of whom would be waiting for the return of Patrick Balkany to the town hall of Levallois-Perret according to the words of the septuagenarian who returns to this town “every two days” on average: “I can’t walk ten meters without people stop me: ‘We miss you, Mr. Mayor! When are you coming back?’ The residents, but also the municipal agents…”
An opinion which is not shared by the councilor who took over at Levallois-Perret, Agnès Pottier-Dumas. The former chief of staff of the former mayor, chosen by Patrick Balkany, “doubts that a judge will grant him this reduced sentence and […] regrets it.” “I would very much like Patrick Balkany to be able to run in the next municipal elections to beat him and finally close this painful chapter,” she declared to Parisian. The 76-year-old man is also determined to reestablish himself at town hall where “people need more human contact”.