I have some sympathy with the filer. EU citizenship meant that living in France for 15+ years didn’t grant a separate citizenship and suddenly the filer could not vote anywhere as a result of being absent from Britain too long.

Realistic countries need to process citizenship for former EU citizens who have been living in their country for long enough to achieve citizenship.

If the filer can prove that they speak French and have knowledge of French culture, they can gain French citizenship. It might require taking a few classes, but the most difficult hurdle (having lived there (legally?) for over five years) has been passed.

It'll take them more effort, but after living in France for long enough to lose UK voting rights I should hope that the rest of the citizenship requirements should be easy.

This assumes the filer wants French citizenship, obviously: if they want to stick with permanent residence but still want to vote then there's no solution, you can't have it both ways.

With 15 years of residence, I believe they're eligible to apply immediately. They'll just need to pass the language test and the culture/history test. Get the background checks and the other processes done.

They are likely not legally allowed to remain in France at the present time. They do not have French citizenship, nor a residency permit, since none was required while they had EU citizenship. This will complicate (though perhaps not bar) any citizenship application.

Why? It's about municipal elections not government elections.

In the UK any resident can vote in municipal elections - there is no citizenship requirement.

That right was based on EU citizenship. So they didn't ask for the right to vote in France, but to retain EU citizenship. Super logical.

I think anyone living in France (or anywhere else) legally should be allowed to vote in local elections. So I think the laws should be changed to allow this Brit to vote in these elections.

Of course that's a bit beside the point in the case though. I guess that option is only open to EU citizens. I find that odd, but I guess that's the law.

Depends on the locality.

I, as a US citizen living in Ireland can vote in local council elections.

Yeah there are many places that allow this sort of thing. I think France should as well.

"your country left EU, to be allowed to vote in the EU you need to be a legal resident of the EU"

- omg! so unfair

That's a very dishonest and childish way to summarise the case. She is a legal long-term resident in an EU nation - France - having lived there for >15 years. However long-term residency status alone does not permit you to vote in local elections, you have to be a full-blown citizen. And given that you cannot vote in UK elections if you've lived abroad for more than fifteen years, she is now in a sort of limbo where she doesn't really have any local representation.

There are many stupid things regarding Brexit (primarily, that it took place at all) but this was a worthwhile thing to try to resolve even if it was a bit of a long shot.

> And given that you cannot vote in UK elections if you've lived abroad for more than fifteen years, she is now in a sort of limbo where she doesn't really have any local representation.

I don't really think that should be relevant to France's laws. Britain could after all change their laws.

But I do think this woman should be able to vote in these local elections as a legal resident. That should be the case regardless of citizenship. But it seems that would require changes to French law.

Isn't this a larger issue with France's voting system? Isn't residency status more democratic than citzenship based requirements?

Yep it would seem so