Voting in France
Here’s a quick guide to how to vote in France if you hold an Australian or British passport.
1. You can’t. Sleep in instead.
Easy, isn’t it?
I own a business in France and I pay all sorts of taxes. I’m expected to integrate and be conversational in French upon arrival (since no paperwork is in any other language), but I don’t have the right to vote in the presidential elections. Immigration is one of the hot topics, and with around 3.6 million immigrants living in France without French nationality, that’s a lot of votes that are never counted. No wonder some local kids weren’t told off by their parents when they broke my flagpole (with Aussie and British flag attached) at last weekend’s Defi Foly event in La Clusaz. The xenophobia starts at the top.
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I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.
These kinds of thoughts always confuse me – not allowing foreigners to vote in presidential elections is not just a French thing, most other countries of the world do the same. And if you have an EU passport, you can vote in the local and EU elections, so they do give you a say on the local and the international level, which is more than a lot of other countries.
If voting is such an important issue to you, I am curious as to why you haven’t gone through the process to become French? Like you, my life is here, I speak French, and I pay a lot of taxes, so I wanted my voice to be heard – so I applied for citizenship and am now able to vote, which you can bet I’ll be doing on Sunday!
Hi! I’m not yet able to satisfy the regulations to become a French citizen.
I was allowed to vote in England before I had British citizenship. I’m not sure what the rules are in my native Australia, but I suspect citizenship is much easier to obtain for those who have settled there than it is here in France. It’s certainly not a 5-year wait! It’s EU law that allows me to vote in EU elections.
Good on you for making the choice to stay here. I’m still not sure where I’ll be by the time I do qualify to be a French citizen *and* an election comes up, which kind of defeats the purpose of applying in the first place.
Ahh, I see. It’s often easy to think that similar things would be easier in our home country just because we have never had to go through them. I know for the UK, you have to have been a permanent resident for five years (so the same as France), and I’m pretty sure for Australia it’s four years. Which only seems normal to me – becoming a citizen of another country is a big deal, it’s not just something that should be handed out like candy. And your being able to vote in the UK was a bit of an exception because they allow commonwealth members to vote, which doesn’t exist in France.
After having been here for so long, I understand France’s desire to want to make sure that people who become citizens actually speak French and know the history/culture. They made a choice many years ago to not be a “melting pot”, which is a different route than many Anglo countries have taken. Which has resulted in a very strict French national identity that they are trying to protect, instead of having it be diluted like it is in the US or any of the other anglo countries. And in my mind, that is their choice. And as it was my choice to live in France, I have to respect that and do my best to integrate accordingly. If I wasn’t okay with it, than it would be up to me to move to a different country that was more in line with my feelings on immigration, instead of expecting an entire country to change just for me.
I’m sorry you think I expect ‘an entire country change just for me’. You’ve misunderstood me. But if you can say you’re 100% happy with all aspects of living in France, congratulations: most of my French friends wouldn’t even agree with that. I think I’m entitled to voice my opinion without being told I should leave the country.
Oh shoot, that’s the problem with the internet – it can be easy to misunderstand. I definitely wasn’t saying you should leave! Nor that I am 100% happy with France – just that it was my choice to live here, so I have to take the good with the bad, and I think that applies to all of us foreigners here. France has its ups and downs, but no country is perfect and if ever one day I find the bad outweighs the good, then it will be time to either go home or find a new pays d’adoption.
Now you two play nicely!
I suspect that things are not going to get better with the new President and we shall all have to weather the storm together.
Lesley, I suspect you’re right. I’m reverting to my preferred subject of food today!
Hello Wendy
I have two questions.
1.
Why the flagpole? Of course it was horrible of the kids to take it down, and even worse of the parents not to punish them, but… why the flag in the first place ? Is it a protest because you are asked to integrate, although not allowed to vote?
2.
Why is M. Sarkozy’s poster above that of M. Hollande’s?
1. The flagpole because it’s a festival atmosphere and lots of people bring them. We invite our friends to bring flags to add to the pole. No protest at all – plenty of French friends came but none brought a French flag this year.
2. It’s how they landed when I took the photo.
I’m a French civil servant (and have been for 9 years), have been married to a Frenchman (for 8 years) and yes, I could apply for French citizenship to vote… but it would cost me in the region of £1000 (certificates and official translations of certificates etc) – with 2 young kids and a mortgage to pay I’ve put it on the backburner for the moment.
French paperwork … hmmm… that deserves a post in itself 😉
Indeed it does, Ceri! I didn’t realise it’s so expensive to obtain French citizenship – thanks for the heads up.