Counting on Votes From Paris-on-Thames (French citizens living in the UK)

[pampango]

In the campaign for the first round of France’s presidential election on Sunday, the main candidates have not forgotten the voters of Paris-on-Thames. That is the nickname that headline writers have given to London, with an estimated French population that rivals that of Nice, France’s fifth largest city.

So how will they vote on Sunday? In most previous elections, a smaller and generally more affluent French community leaned towards the right. But the outcome of the last election in 2007 showed them broadly following national trends.

It is a constituency the candidates cannot afford to ignore. François Hollande, the Socialist challenger, was in London in February to press the flesh...

Paris and London are just two hours and 15 minutes apart by high-speed train and, as European Union citizens, the French face no barriers in taking jobs in the British capital.

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/counting-on-votes-from-paris-on-thames/

I didn't realize that there were that many French citizens living and working in London alone. I wonder how many live in the UK altogether.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Often surprises me

when I'm out dancing - quite a few French girls resident here in the UK

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. 300,000 in London, perhaps 500,000 in the UK; 100,000 registered to vote

It is a strange fact of political life in France that London has become a major campaign stop in a presidential election. If it was important for Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, it is even more important for François Hollande, who was in town yesterday. It is not just that there are now 102,470 French voters registered in the UK or that the number of French people living in Britain has risen every year since 1991. With around 300,000 French residents, London has become the sixth-largest French city. Nor is it that they are all traders who ply their cut-throat trade before the very altar of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, the City.

The majority are below the age of 40; there are more women than men; and one third work in the public sector, particularly education. These are the voters any future president has to attract. Hollande, the Socialist party candidate and frontrunner in the presidential race, was not on enemy turf yesterday in London, although expats generally vote for the right in their homeland. He was certainly addressing a wider audience, but one that has had every reason to be as jaundiced about Sarkozy's erratic, ego-fuelled rule as their compatriots at home. On the themes Hollande chose to address, a Europe that can provide jobs, growth and opportunity for the young, he preached to the converted.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/29/francois-hollande-a-welcome-visitor

And a commenter added:

Estimates from academic sources are that there are 500,000 French citizens resident in the UK, of which 250,000 to 350,000 are living in London.

[xchrom]

3. Du rec. Nt