A French petition has been developed attempting to get former President of the United States Barrack Obama to run for the next French President.
Realistically, Obama cannot actually win the office without citizenship
The campaign developed to promote the cause has been named "Obama 17" and promoted posters featuring Obama's face with the message, “Oui on peut,” a French translation of Obama's campaign tagline, “Yes, we can.” The campaign had already amassed 40,000 signatures, some of which do not include French citizens, however, and hopes to amass one million signatures by March 15.
Realistically, Obama cannot actually run for the candidacy, as one must be a French citizen in order to do so, but the campaign appears to serve as a satirical protest. According to a statement from the organizers, they claimed that they wanted to promote "a foreigner" for the role of office for the sake of giving "a lesson of democracy to the planet."
In addition to citizenship, it would also be needed to obtain signatures from 500 mayors out of 35,000 mayors across France by March 17.
What does the French election currently look like?
It has been speculated that the campaign has been put on to protest the candidacy of far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen¸ who appears to be a strong candidate this year.
Len Pen appears to have a strong lead in the polls, and is currently above independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and the center-right candidate François Fillon. Reportedly, Macron's loss came from an attempt at moderate policies, and a financial scandal has similarly plagued Fillon. French socialists have also appeared to have gaining problems during this election, with their candidate Benoit Hamon fourth in the polls.
Le Pen's politics, notably a popular anti-immigration rhetoric, has led to comparisons with current United States President Donald Trump. Similar to the events of the recent American election, however, it is expected that Le Pen’s popularity within the polls might not guarantee her the election, and tactical voting may prevent her from winning.
