Will the former President of the United States of America, Barack Obama become the next President of France? This might sound crazy but a is currently circulating with the aim of gathering 1 million signatures to convince the former U.S. president to run for office in France.
Although the law does not allow a non-French to run for the post, one of the campaigners said they started it to offer an idea of a globalized government.
Posters of Obama’s candidacy have been plastered across Paris. The Obama17 says the former commander-in-chief ‘has the best resume in the world for the job’. ‘We wish to strike a blow by electing a foreign president at the head of our beautiful country,’ the website reads.
‘Barack Obama has completed his second term as president of the United States… why not hire him as president for France?’ The Obama17 slogan reads: ‘Oui on peut’, which is French for ‘Yes we can.’
As at Friday, over 30,000 people have signed the petition. It should be pointed out that Obama would have to learn French and become a citizen before he could even be in the running to be France’s president. 
The creators of the petition, who wanted to remain anonymous, told NPR it was a joke but it was started out of frustration about politicians in France in general.
‘We were thinking about French politics and saying that we were fed up with the fact that we all the time had to vote against someone and how it would be cool to be able to vote for someone we admire. We came up with Obama,’ one creator said.
‘It’s definitely a joke. But it could make people think a little bit about what we could do differently in French politics… the idea was to make people wake up.’
France will hold its presidential elections from April and some of the leading candidates are embroiled in controversy and are being investigated. The candidates are Francois Fillon, Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Melechon. The final rounds of the elections will be held on May 7.
