A campaign in France for former United States President Barack Obama to run for president of France in the country's upcoming 2017 election has been started by some French citizens who are unhappy with the current pool of candidates.
“Obama17” posters have been spotted around Paris promoting a website with a petition to get Obama to agree to jump into the race. The site hopes to get a million signatures before a first round of voting on April 23, according to ABC News.
The site, which has no official connection to Obama, claims that he “has the best résumé in the world for the job,” ABC reported, adding that Obama could help to counter the current popularity of right-wing parties in France.
“At a time when France is about to vote massively for the extreme right, we can still give a lesson of democracy to the planet by electing a French president, a foreigner,” the website reads.
Although the organizer admits that the campaign is a joke intended to protest frontrunner Marine Le Pen and her opponents, he says that people have made suggestions about how Obama can be naturalized by the president of the French Assembly so that he could actually run, CNN reported.
“I think if Barack Obama answers this, there will be a huge amount of reaction. I think he might like this kind of thing,” said organizer Antoine. “People in France would get crazy, especially young people. But he won’t say yes to our proposal,” CNN reported.
It wasn’t clear whether Obama is aware of the movement.
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