Thousands of French people want Barack Obama to be their next president
More than 40,000 people have signed a spoof petition calling for Barack Obama to be the next president of France.
As France prepares for its general election in May, an unofficial campaign has been launched to "bring France out of its apathy" and elect Barack Obama as France's new president.
"We would like to make a big splash in electing a foreign president as head of our beautiful country," reads the campaign's manifesto. "Barack Obama completed his second presidential term as POTUS on the 21 January, why not hire him as president of France?" the manifesto says.
The campaign is hoping for 1 million pledges to vote for the former POTUS in order to convince Obama to stand in the next election.
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The reasons listed on the campaign site explain why Obama is perfect for the role. According to the manifesto, he has the best CV in the world for the job. "Because it's still possible to vote for a president and not against a candidate. Because at a time when France is getting ready for a massive vote in favour of the far right, we can still give a lesson in democracy to the planet in electing a foreign French president," the manifesto continues.
The group behind the campaign describe themselves as "four thirty-something Parisians" but they have not identified themselves. They explained their objectives to Mashable FR. "We've had enough of voting against candidates rather than voting for a president," they explained. "We found ourselves dreaming about what could happen if the world of politics could offer us a figure we admire and who makes us feel calm when we look to the future," they continued. They say they decided to put those thoughts into action by launching the campaign, which has since garnered the support of thousands of people.
"We just wanted to make voters think, to piss off our politicians and to make everyone dream," they continued.
Another Obama presidency, anyone?!
Topics Barack Obama Politics
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
