Thunderbolt in Var politics: the mayor of Toulon, Hubert Falco, was dismissed from his mandate by the courts on Friday, with immediate effect, for having “totally flouted” his duty to set an example in a case of embezzlement of money audience.
The elected official, a former member of the Les Républicains party, rallied to Emmanuel Macron, was sentenced by the Marseille criminal court to a three-year suspended prison sentence, the confiscation of 55,000 euros which had been seized from his account and a sentence of ineligibility of five years with provisional execution, that is to say applicable immediately, even in the event of an appeal.
Aged 75, the strong man of the Var fell on a case of meals and laundry settled, illegally according to justice, on public funds from the departmental council.
Hubert Falco left the court head down, without a word. It is a real earthquake for Toulon where he had been re-elected three times in the first round and where he presented himself as a bulwark at the National Rally, from which he had taken over the city in 2001.
In a long motivation of which she is customary, President Céline Ballerini estimated that when he came for free lunch in the cafeteria of the Var departmental council, when he was no longer president, he had “obviously taken advantage of a service which was not (him) due”.
As with the evening meals which were prepared for him and his wife and stored in a special refrigerator – hence the name of the “Falco’s Fridge” case – at taxpayer expense.
In total, these private meals served to Hubert Falco and his wife, an employee of the county council, would have cost the taxpayer at least 64,500 euros between 2015 and 2018, according to investigators.
The facts had been revealed by a former head of the kitchen, who committed suicide during the investigation, then confirmed by others, including a director of services.
On the dry cleaning costs that the Falco couple also had to pay, “why have the county council assume such laughable sums?” Asked the president of the court.
No doubt, because “you have perpetuated customs that you had taken before”.
In the public, Hubert Falco’s wife and close guard seemed dejected.
“We heard the witnesses say that you were an excellent mayor, that you had done a lot,” continued Ms. Ballerini.
“But the question is not there”, she added, because the facts, “by their smallness”, testify “to an obvious lack of respect” of the institutions and show that “the departmental council remained your territory “.
The prosecutor, who had made requisitions in accordance with the sentences pronounced, had described the case as “a real scandal”.
Before the court left to deliberate, Hubert Falco said he was “hurt” at the prospect of having his mandates taken away from him. Imagining no longer being able to “participate in the life of my city, of my country, this is the worst condemnation for me”, he added.
It is “not at all the business of the century”, had tried his lawyer Me Thierry Fradet, castigating this “northern wind” which brings from Northern Europe a model of probity “not necessarily adapted to our mores”.
Marc Giraud, former president of the county council, was sentenced for embezzlement of public funds to two years suspended prison sentence, 15,000 euros fine and five years of ineligibility. He had already been forced to give up his chair in 2022, after another conviction for embezzlement of public funds.
The lawyer for the Anticor anti-corruption association and the Unsa departmental union of the Var territories were civil parties, but the departmental council “had not seen fit to become a civil party”, also noticed the president then that he could have hoped to recover the sums at stake.
“It’s a scandalous mistake” that the department did not file a civil action, said opposition municipal councilor Cécile Muschotti for her part in Var-Matin.
The president of the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Renaud Muselier, from the same political side as Hubert Falco, just like the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi, testified in a joint press release to “all (their) friendship and all (their) esteem” for this “great servant of Toulon” and “of the State”.
The head of the RN in Toulon Amaury Navarranne for his part called for “the convocation of voters for a new municipal election”. Normally, the resignation of Hubert Falco will be recorded by a decree of the prefect which will lead to the election of a new mayor within the municipal council.
14/04/2023 20:47:35 – Marseille (AFP) © 2023 AFP
