The mayor of the French city of Dijon has expressed support for a proposal to allow non-European Union foreigners to vote in local elections and stand for office, claiming the move would facilitate “social justice.”
Mayor of Dijon François Rebsamen said he supported a proposal from French MP Sacha Houlié, a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, which would allow migrants from outside of the European Union to vote and hold office in local elections.
“It is a question of social justice. Community nationals may participate in municipal elections. Therefore, the argument that was constantly opposed to us – and that the right continues to brandish – that granting such a benefit breaks the existing link between nationality and citizenship falls by itself,” Rebsamen said, the newspaper Le Figaro reports.
“Why one and not the other, unless we show rejection, even racism, towards some of our fellow citizens? Why this differentiated treatment, especially towards those who come from the other side of the Mediterranean? The fear of radical Islamism means that today many are crying wolf with the National Rally,” he added.
Populist Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), one of the largest parties in the French parliament, have fiercely opposed the proposal, with RN Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Jordan Bardella claiming the move would be “the final dispossession of the French of their country.”
The RN are not the only political figures to oppose the proposal as even President Macron’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin is “firmly opposed to this measure,” according to his entourage.
MP Sacha Houlié, meanwhile, justified giving non-EU foreigners the vote saying, “This recognition is long overdue. However, we owe it to those who often and for a long time participated in the dynamism of our society.”
“It no longer shocks anyone to see Spaniards or Bulgarians voting in the municipal elections in France. But it shocked many people that the English no longer have the right to vote in France after Brexit,” he added.
Houlié is expected to table a bill to allow non-European Union foreigners to vote in local elections at the start of the parliamentary term in a “personal capacity.”
Similar proposals have been made in European countries in recent years, such as in Sweden in 2018 when the country’s Left Party introduced a parliamentary motion to allow refugees and foreign nationals to not only vote in local elections but also in national and European elections as well. The motion was never adopted, however.
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