The European single market grants the freedom of movement to products, services, capital and humans. It's a very economic definition of humans, considering citizes merely as production factors. Still, it works and every year, more and more citizens choose to live and work in a country other than their country of origin. The problem however is that in doing so, they often loose many of their democratic rights.

I'm a good example. I'm German, in France since 2012. I can only vote in municipal and european elections in France. In all other elections I have no right to vote. Back in Germany, where I haven't lived since almost 15 years, I risk to loose my unconditional right to vote. By being European, I'm indirectly supporting nationalism, because I can no longer vote in my home country and also not in France in many relevant elections. There are 15 million mobile EU citizens today, 2 million living in France. 2 million additional votes, likely against populism and for Europe can be a significant reinforcements to hold the republicain front and I believe we should not live in a Europe that creates different tiers of citizens when it comes to democratic rights.

You can argue I can just take french nationality, but wouldn't this go against the idea of free movement? Before France I lived 3 years in Austria and who knows, maybe I will move to Slovenia one day. We cannot expect to change nationality every time we move, it's a cumbersome process that often takes many years and hurdles to pass. Our democracies are probably already suffering from granting voting rights based on nationality and/or ethnicity instead of citizenship and I would to change this. I could only hold my breath before the 2nd round of the presidential elections in 2017 and the prospect of a far-right president. In 2027, I would like to vote to help prevent this.

I therefore would like to introduce the initiative to grant full voting rights to mobile EU citizens after continuous residence and taxation of 24 months. The right to choose the country you vote in will be the 5th freedom of the European single market - or a first freedom of a European democracy.

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Do you like this proposal ? I need your help ! I'd like to hear your thoughts on my proposal. And if you want to help mobilise the 2 million Europeans in France to register to vote, I've even made a site for this called votefrance.eu. It's non Volt branded, so you can share it freely and also help translate the remaining languages missing.

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I'm head of the list for Volt France. Sadly, to get into the European Parliament in France, the best ideas will never see the light of day without funding to finance bulletins de vote and professions de fois and the network to share good proposals. If you have contacts possibly willing to support full voting rights for mobile EU citizens with a donation or even want to donate yourself, you can push this idea a step closer to becoming reality. If you want to share this proposal in your network, please do, so we can create the momentum we need. Thank you!

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