Magnifique: Boris Johnson’s Father Stanley Johnson Delighted After Becoming French Citizen
UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley Johnson, expressed his delight on acquiring French citizenship.
The confirmation came from the French justice ministry who in a statement said that Stanley Johnson, whose mother, Irene Williams, was born in Versailles, is now a French national.
Despite being a supporter of Brexit – which led the UK out of the EU and also helped in the rise of Boris Johnson – Stanley voted to remain during the 2016 referendum.
Stanley Johnson was a member of the European Parliament who served the EU – then known as the European Economic Community – in 1973 when the UK joined the bloc.
The former civil servant was among the first to work in Brussels after the UK joined the EU.
“I’m absolutely delighted and have no idea at what level this decision was taken, but I do think it was a very imaginative thing to do at this moment, at a time when relations with France and the EU are not necessarily the best. I think it’s very nice for arms to be stretched out one way or another,” Stanley Johnson was quoted as saying by news agency the Guardian.
Stanley Johnson said that the granting of citizenship was a ‘small gesture’ through which he wanted to show that he does not believe ‘as being cast aside from Europe’.
Stanley even said that trade issues can be resolved between the UK and the bloc through ‘retaining a degree of commonality in our two systems’.
He said his decision to seek French nationality was significant because it was a sentimental one. “If I understood correctly, I am French. My mother was born in France, her mother was entirely French, and her grandfather too. So for me it’s a matter of claiming what I already have,” Stanley Johnson said.
“I will always be European, that’s for sure. You can’t tell the English ‘You’re not European’,” Stanley was quoted as saying.
When asked what was Boris Johnson’s response to his father reclaiming his French citizenship, Stanley said: “I got a one-word reply from Boris, which said, ‘Magnifique’.”
French daily Le Figaro in a report said that Stanley Johnson may have made a declaration of French nationality through an article of the French civil code which permits people to regain French nationality by a simple declaration, subject to justifying “manifest cultural, professional, economic or family ties” with France or having fought for it, because otherwise foreigners with French relatives can no longer claim French nationality if their family is settled abroad for more than 50 years and have not exercised the rights linked to nationality.
In France, this is known as loss of nationality through désuétude, or disuse.
(with inputs from the Guardian, PA Media and Le Figaro)
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