French favour voting rights for foreigners: 61% back Socialist Party position

[pampango]

A clear majority of French people want to give non-EU foreigners the right to vote in local elections, a recent poll shows. The ruling right-wing party disagrees.

61 percent of the French support the Socialist Party in their proposal to give foreigners from outside the European Union a right to vote, a Le Parisien poll shows. 75 percent of the left-wing electorate also support voting rights for foreigners.

They suggest giving voting rights to foreigners who have been living in France for over five years and have working papers. Foreigners from the European Union already have such voting rights.

However the ruling right-wing UMP party opposes extending rights to non-EU foreigners. French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week said only French and EU citizens should be allowed to vote because they share a common destiny.

http://www.thelocal.fr/1879/20111128/#

Hadn't realized that foreigners from the EU already had voting rights. Interesting that the left in France wants to extend voting to long-term foreign residents while the right opposes it.

[Ghost Dog]

1. An EU citizen resident in another country can vote in local municipal elections

and in elections to the EU parliament only, not in regional nor national elections in that country. Many, like myself, cannot vote in national nor any other election in their EU country of origin either, being deemed by law to have spent too many years non-resident. So I'm largely disenfranchised. In UK's case (I'm a Brit long-time resident in Spain), you're treated under electoral law exactly the same as an EU citizen resident in another EU country as if you'd emigrated for good to the far side of the planet (another example of UK not really taking EU membership seriously).

That said, to allow non-EU citizens resident in the EU to vote in local municipal elections where they live and are immediately affected by local politics (just like me), is very just and good, I opine.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. The UK also allows Commonwealth citizens who are UK resident to vote in national elections

and Irish citizens: http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/who_can_register_to_vote.aspx