On this spring morning, a strong mistral blows over the town hall of Toulon. A wind of anger, or renewal. It’s according to the sense in which it is taken: that, we know it well here, in this city which lives to the rhythm of its port. A wind, in any case, as it has rarely blown on the prefecture of Var: for a week, Hubert Falco is no longer at the head of the town hall. In itself, it is downright a storm: the city councilor has been at the helm of Toulon for twenty-two years. But the captain of always was suddenly landed by justice.
On April 14, the criminal court sentenced Hubert Falco for embezzlement. The former LR, now a supporter of Emmanuel Macron, is accused of having continued to have lunch for free for years in the cafeteria of the departmental council, when he had not been president for more than ten years, and to have benefited from meals on wheels and laundry costs, also paid for by the public funds of this community.
“Give us back Falco!” »
And the sentence is unequivocal: in addition to the three-year suspended prison sentence, the mayor finds himself deprived of his civic rights for five years and immediately becomes ineligible. The announcement of the appeal by Hubert Falco’s lawyer will not change anything. On April 18, a prefectural decree brought Hubert Falco to resign “automatically” from all his mandates. A news that the Toulonnais, rather lenient, struggle to understand.
“Hubert Falco was the mayor, but he was also my father,” says Josephine, leaving a downtown tobacconist. I am 46 years old and I have always lived in Toulon. And I can tell you, he’s a very good man, who takes care of the people of Toulon, the animals, the elderly. He did a lot of work to transform the city. He really likes the RCT too. I don’t understand why they did this to him. The mayor, he has a heart of gold. No, even diamond. Gold is not expensive enough to qualify. Give us back Falco! If Falco doesn’t come back, it’s simple: I stop voting. He did something stupid. Who has never done stupid things? Who has never cheated? We accuse the mayor for trifles! »
A “brutal” decision
“Falco, he really restored the city, abounds Germaine. Ok, he used it. But what politician has not served? If this is the price to pay to have people who move, I take it. “It’s not because we have done good things for a city that we shouldn’t be sanctioned when we do something bad…” tempers his lunch companion, Elodie.
The news in Toulon surprised everyone, including in the ranks of the opposition. “We were surprised at the speed in making the decision, confesses Amaury Navarranne, RN municipal councilor in Toulon and party leader in the city. The fact that the penalty had an immediate effect seemed a bit harsh to me. That said, I expected a conviction. I mentioned this possibility at the end of 2022 during a debate on budgetary orientation, saying that the year 2023 would rather be the year of judicial orientation. Hubert Falco took me to task at the end of the municipal council. He wanted to fight me and come to blows! “And to accuse:” Hubert Falco fell into a syndrome of the local barony. He was elected in the first round in 2008, in 2014, in 2020…. In the department, he always considered himself to be the boss, even if he was no longer there. He was in a form of habit. »
Stunned loved ones
The departure of this longtime boss is astonishing even in his own ranks. The creation of a support committee, “J’aime Toulon avec Hubert”, was announced on social networks to show solidarity with the city councilor. “Amazed, stunned, incredulous, frightened, collapsed, annihilated, here are the emotions and feelings that the Toulonnaises and Toulonnais have expressed since the verdict, delivered last Friday, rendering our mayor ineligible”, can we read, for example, in a tweet from the April 20.
However, it is necessary to move away from Toulon to find a support and close friend who agrees to testify openly, in this case, Grégory Lamothe, member of the support committee, who made his debut in politics in Toulon alongside Hubert Falco, before plowing the Frejus lands, now owned by RN David Rachline. “I am stunned, like everyone else, confides Grégory Lamothe. I was dumbfounded when I found out. Nobody expected it. It’s like lightning falling on our heads. I did not understand anything, and I find that it is not deserved. I’m touched that Hubert fell like that, overnight. »
omerta
In Toulon, supporters of Hubert Falco seem quicker to show their affection on social networks than through the press. Contacted many times by 20 Minutes Marseillesseveral of Hubert Falco’s assistants were taken by a sudden epidemic of systematic responders or suddenly overloaded diaries, inviting to cut short the exchange as soon as the reason for it was explained.
“His deputies, Hubert Falco holds them all, believes a local elected official well aware of Toulon politics, on condition of anonymity. There are people who are really afraid, because he managed to ensure that everyone, through his mandates, lives thanks to him. “” Hubert Falco has two sides, confirms Cécile Muschotti, former Toulon deputy within the presidential majority, now a municipal councilor. It has a very popular side with the Toulonnais. He was mayor before I was born! And he has a dark side of a man who locks everything down. The elected representatives of its majority do not have the right to express themselves in the municipal council. Only Hubert Falco speaks! “And to conclude:” This is the beginning of the end of Hubert Falco. But he has so much network that it will take years to build anything else. ” The beginning of a new era ? Next Wednesday, the city council will meet to elect another mayor. The favorite is Josée Massi, first assistant… dubbed by Hubert Falco, a few days after his dethronement.