Norwegian-French Eva Joly to run for president in France

The latest candidate to jump into the 2012 French presidential race has quite a background – once a beauty queen and au pair, later a muckraking prosecutor, and now a member of the European Parliament for the Green-Europe Ecology party. But the most striking part about 67-year-old Eva Joly’s past may be a citizenship record ...

MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images
MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images
MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images

The latest candidate to jump into the 2012 French presidential race has quite a background - once a beauty queen and au pair, later a muckraking prosecutor, and now a member of the European Parliament for the Green-Europe Ecology party. But the most striking part about 67-year-old Eva Joly's past may be a citizenship record that would make Donald Trump's hair spin. From the Guardian:

The latest candidate to jump into the 2012 French presidential race has quite a background – once a beauty queen and au pair, later a muckraking prosecutor, and now a member of the European Parliament for the Green-Europe Ecology party. But the most striking part about 67-year-old Eva Joly’s past may be a citizenship record that would make Donald Trump’s hair spin. From the Guardian:

Born in a working-class suburb in Norway, she came to Paris as a young au pair to finance her legal studies and ended up marrying the son of the bourgeois family she was posted to, despite their disapproval. She now holds joint Norwegian-French nationality and will be the first dual national to run for the French presidency.

This April, we explored how, in many countries worldwide, it’s perfectly legal for individuals who were not native-born or who have dual citizenship to serve in the country’s highest offices. For instance, Thailand’s Oxford-educated Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is also a British citizen, which reportedly could put him in legal trouble for alleged human rights abuses from last year’s Red Shirt protest movement. Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, forced out of office by a Hezbollah-backed uprising in January, has Lebanese and Saudi citizenship.

Joly’s dual citizenship should create an interesting side story during election season in France, whose government was a key proponent of the changes in the Schengen agreement this summer targeted at restricting illegal immigration into Europe. She probably won’t get elected, but, with a reputation for speaking her mind, she’ll at least make for some fireworks.

Twitter: @ned_downie

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