Levallois-Perret (AFP)

The town hall of Levallois-Perret was packed to Thursday evening to say "goodbye" to the Balkanys, during the last municipal council before the March elections, in the absence of "Patrick" released from prison the day before after five months of detention for tax evasion and money laundering.

Isabelle Balkany, acting mayor since the incarceration of her husband, had warned the day before that she would chair the council herself. "Patrick will rest," she had decided.

Patrick Balkany, 71, and mayor of this affluent city in western Paris for more than 30 years, was released on Wednesday, emaciated and visibly tired.

Thursday evening, his wife and first deputy entered the hall of the municipal council under very long applause from residents, pressed against each other on the red stands. Standing up, moved faces, they paid tribute to the Balkany spouses for their last municipal council: after their conviction at first instance for tax fraud and aggravated money laundering, they finally gave up at the end of 2019 to run for a sixth term at the town hall, not without denounce the "confiscation of universal suffrage by the courts".

"I would like to update you on Patrick," she said. "We fell asleep late, he needed to speak."

The room smiles, drinks his words. Many residents are filming on the phone.

- "I love you" -

Then she starts reading a letter that "Patrick" wrote to them, to tell them about her "love story" with the city.

For a good quarter of an hour, the first assistant transmits the word of the mayor who draws up his balance sheet, recalls what he "built in four decades" in this "small town" which he had discovered "wasteland, delivered to herself". He recalls the "many facilities that have seen the light of day", nurseries, sports complexes, the shopping center, green spaces whose number has been "multiplied by 11", and finally the "first municipal police force in France and video surveillance "that he was the first to set up in the country.

"Levallois is our whole life, our whole history, our third child", he also writes, wishing his successors designated for the March election to "continue writing the beautiful story".

"I love you, I will always love you," concludes the city councilor.

"Waaah", ecstatic several people in the stands, before new loud applause.

At the end of the session, where she did not deprive herself as usual to run away with the opposition, Mrs. Balkany concluded: "I was not really mayor for a long time but it was good for me enjoyed".

The public leaves the room, conquered, like Lydia Hautin, 65, who came to say "goodbye" to the Balkany that she "adores". "Especially Patrick," she says. "His frankness, his banter, his kindness ... He will be missed."

"It's the end of an era," sighs René, 82, "even if it should have ended differently".

The Balkany spouses, who had appealed their two convictions, will know the decision of the court of appeal in the tax fraud component on March 4, and on April 22 in the money laundering component.

Nicolas "would have liked", him, that Patrick Balkany is there, "even if it would have been badly perceived". Nine, 52, doesn't want to hear about her "business". "We don't care, it's none of our business," she sweeps.

If the hour of his political retirement has arrived, she is convinced that "Patrick" will be back here, "when he is better". "He will come back to see us, because Levallois is his baby".

© 2020 AFP