Last year, all eyes were on the United States during the height of election fever which resulted to Donald Trump being named as the 45th President of the country. While many expressed their regrets that Barack Obama couldn’t run for a third term, another country is calling for him to run for their next president.
According to The Verge, a petition which was launched on Monday, Feb. 20 is calling for Obama to run in this year’s French elections, which will be held in April and May. The petition, called Obama17, aims to collect 1 million signatures by March 15 to persuade the father-of-two to run in the upcoming election.
The petition states that the French are ready to make radical choices.
“We wish to strike a blow by electing a foreign President at the head of our beautiful country,” it continued. “Barack Obama has completed his second term as President of the United States on January 21, why not hire him as President for France?”
The Obama17 petition outlined all the reasons why the 44th President of the United States is the best person to lead France, pointing out that Obama has “the best resume in the world for the job.” It was also said that because France is about to “vote massively for the extreme right, we can still give a lesson of democracy to the planet by electing a French President, a foreigner.”
As of this time, the petition has over 42,000 signatures.
One of the petition creators, who asked to be identified as “Antoine,” told The Verge that he and his friends decided to create the petition out of frustration with France’s leading candidates—center-right candidate Francois Fillon and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Antoine added that the petition was their way of saying that they have had enough of the two French candidates.
The petition creator also said that he has grown tired of voting for the lesser of two evils and that he would rather vote for a person whom he truly believes in. Last, week, Antoine and his friends posted 500 Obama posters across Paris with the slogan “Oui on peut” which translates to “Yes we can.”
Antoine is aware that an Obama presidency in his lifetime is unlikely, but he is continuing with the petition as he strives to make the French aware of the possibilities if they could elect people “who are competent to fill important positions, rather than getting stuck with the same people we’ve had for 20 years.”
For more, check out Jobs & Hire’s report on how to be a better boss this year.
