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French government backs down on promise to give foreigners local election vote

France's government said this week it will not pursue its pledge to extend some voting rights to non-European Union foreign residents, following last weekend's European election triumph of the far-right Front National.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve Reuters/Christian Hartmann
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Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said late Wednesday that a long-promised proposal to allow foreigners living in France to vote in local elections was not on the table.

It was a campaign promise of President François Hollande but the Socialist government has repeatedly delayed drafting a law.

The law would require a revision of the constitution, which can only happen by referendum or by a 60-per-cent majority vote in the French parliament.

Cazeneuve said that the government has dropped the campaign pledge because there is no hope of winning the vote in parliament.

“We do not have the constitutional majority to pursue it,” he said. “Today we have to concentrate on what's essential, what we can do immediately with the majority that we do have, to rebuild the country's economy and help it grow. So I'm simply saying it’s pointless to raise the question when we know we cannot resolve it.”

Socialist governments have been proposing and delaying such a law for more than 30 years.

Nationals of other European Union states living in France can already take part in local elections, as well as European ones.

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