British women win voting rights in France before Brexit | Brexit
French courts have ordered election officials to restore the right to vote in local elections, triggering calls for a renewed bilateral treaty on elections in each country.
Former British civil servant Alice Bouilliez, who has lived in France for 38 years, said she was “very surprised” but was pleased that the Och Court in southwestern France ordered the authorities to put her name back in local elections for the local elections.
“I was very happy with the results. I was very surprised when I got the ruling from the court because I was looking forward to the knuckles,” she said.
Bouilliez made his first legal action against disenfranchisement in 2020 and appealed to the European Court of Justice, which ruled against her in 2022.
The court followed the advice of defense attorney Anthony Collins, who said the EU Treaty made “the nationality of a member state” “a basic condition for a person to be able to acquire and retain the status of a coalition and to benefit fully from the rights attached to that status”.
Fouchet said the court did not determine what happened to those gained rights such as Bouilliez had when Bouilliez could become a permanent resident of France under the free-flow rules used by the British before Brexit.
He said that the ruling of the Ohch court judiciary can now be used to restore France's rights to British citizens living in France, he did not choose to apply for French citizenship and hoped to win their voting rights.
“The court ruled that Alice had committed no crime and that losing her voting rights was a fundamental and disproportionate infringement of her voting rights,” he said. “The voting rights are a universal interest, not just a right.”
Despite marrying a French citizen, Bouilliez never sought citizenship, partly because she swore in to the British royal family while working in the Foreign Office.
Prior to Brexit, British citizens living in France had the right to vote in municipal and European Parliamentary elections rather than legislative elections for the National Government or the presidency.
In mirroring cases, EU citizens, including French people who permanently reside in the UK, have the right to vote in local and European elections, rather than national voting rights, except for citizens of Ireland, Cyprus and Malta who can vote in all elections in the UK.
The UK originally wanted to make part of the reciprocal voting rights for the Brexit deal, but the EU disagreed. Leave Britain to negotiate a bilateral treaty.
So far, only five countries, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Poland and Luxembourg, have agreed that each other's citizens can continue to have rights in local elections, but there is no such treaty with France.
Fouchet called on the French and British governments, who now benefit from the resettlement in the overall EU relations to open up negotiations to restore referendum rights.
He said: “The French and British governments should have a bilateral treaty that goes against the right to vote in municipal elections. I think this judgment is an opportunity, especially given the recent UK EU summit to reach an agreement on it.”
The UK government has been contacted for comment.