Votes for foreigners in municipal elections

A Renaissance (née LREM) Député has proposed a new law permitting foreigners to vote in municipal elections (on the basis of foreigners paying local taxes but not having any representation) . Naturally LR, RN and Gerard Darmanin are opposed to this proposal…

Don’t EU citizens already have the right to vote in municipal and european elections.

Not all foreigners living in France are EU citizens - Brits for instance.

I really do understand that , the point for me is if you want to vote take out nationality .

and then wait for at least 2 sets of locals to pass you by before you get to eventually vote (assuming you achieve your objective in the first place of course) :wink:

I understand (happy to stand corrected) that in:-

Germany (non EU) foreigners can’t vote,
Spain they can if they come from a country that permits Spaniards to vote in local elections (eg UK),
Belgium, non EU nationals can vote in local elections after 5 years residence,
the UK, foreigners can vote in local elections etc.

That’s rather different to your original point, but you don’t explain your view.

A person needs to have lived in France for five years before they can begin the application process, which can take a further two years or more. That’s seven years of taxation without representation.

@George1 We have about as much chance of that as we had in maintaining our EU nationality, despite in some cases many years of devotion to the European ideal, all because of a vote that many of us weren’t allowed to take part in.

Even when we had the vote in local elections here, we did not have a vote for the departments and regions despite not being able to vote for counties in Britain.

Who knows, the low turnout in last elections may make some keen to have more potential voters.

So you think you should be allowed to vote just like that ? Because you might own a house here that makes you special ,I think not .Go down the route get nationality.

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Nothing to do with owning a house here, it’s to do with paying taxes here. You keep making points but you’re not substantiating them. Neither is it about being special - that’s absurd because most residents of France can vote!

I didn’t argue against getting French nationality, I pointed out that one can be paying taxes for seven years without representation. Taxation = representation is not weird, it’s a fairly common practise in many parts of the world.

And you’ve still not explained why you’re against it!

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I don’t see why foreigners shouldn’t vote in the municipal elections. They are directly concerned after all. I do think though that they should actually be residents. It might make them better informed and more interested in doing something rather than just moaning about what they don’t like.

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Yep,
I’d second that!

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So do I but @vero I don’t think anyone is advocating giving the vote to holiday home owners, unless I have misunderstood.

@Flocreen There are many reasons why some people decline to take on French nationality and it has been done to death already here.

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This article explains the idea quite clearly.
and I note that the proposition has been discussed for many, many years (certainly since 1981)… without getting anywhere :roll_eyes:

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Not always as simple as that.

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But we had the right to vote locally right up until Brexit took effect, so I am surprised that it has been discussed for so long. The Maarstrict treaty I think in 1992 was when that was all agreed.

I prefer to look at the matter from a different viewpoint. If I lived in England, in a place where there is a large immigrant community, would I want them voting in my local English council election, and thus influencing what decisions are taken in my English town ? The answer is a resounding NO. I think that local elections are for the locals, and that is why I did not register to vote here during the time that I could have done so.
Let the locals sort it out, and if the locals decide certain things which the foreigners do not care for, well then there is little to stop the latter from moving on to pastures new should they so wish.
I decided to live permanently in France because I liked this place, and the reason I like it is because of how the locals decide to run the place. They seem to make a reasonable job of it so why not just let them get on with things.

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Surely if you live somewhere permanently you ARE a local?I think people will not be better members of society if they are disenfranchised.

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That’s just about the most racist claptrap I have read in a long time.

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