A Briton living in the Gers, who challenged her removal from the electoral lists following Brexit, was dismissed on Thursday June 9 by European justice, which recalls that only EU citizens can vote in local elections.
Read alsoThe relief of the French who have become British since Brexit
"
British nationals who enjoyed the rights attached to European citizenship no longer enjoy, after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, the right to vote and stand as a candidate in municipal elections in their Member State of residence
", according to a statement from the Court of Justice of the EU.
The British living in France could indeed, since the municipal elections of 2001, vote and be candidates under their membership of the Union.
His request rejected by the mayor of the village
Having been unable to participate in the municipal elections of 2020 in Thoux, this British citizen, resident in France since 1984 without having nationality, had asked in October 2020 to be re-registered on the list of voters of her municipality.
Her request having been rejected by the mayor of her village, she went to the Auch court, arguing that she “
no longer enjoyed the right to vote and stand as a candidate in the United Kingdom
”, under British law. , since he has not lived there for more than fifteen years.
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The European Court, seized of the case, recalls in its press release that the loss of the right to vote of British nationals is "
an automatic consequence of the sole decision taken by the United Kingdom to withdraw from the Union
".
On the eve of Brexit, more than 700 Britons sat on the municipal councils of French municipalities, according to the National Directory of Elected Officials.
To keep their mandate, some asked for and obtained French nationality.
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