Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley, said he was “absolutely pleased” that his application to become a French citizen had been approved after he submitted his documents last year.
The 81-year-old former MEP, who has family ties to the country, told The Independent that it was a “very nice gesture” by the French authorities.
On Friday, a source from the Ministry of Justice in Paris confirmed that the candidacy of the Prime Minister’s father was successful and that Mr. Johnson will be invited to an official celebration ceremony.
He will see this as a conscientious French citizen under the country’s flag, playing the French national anthem La Marseilles.
Another source told AFP: “Based on the facts in his application and without the refusal of the Minister of Justice, Mr. Stanley Johnson acquired French citizenship on May 18, 2022.
They added: “The decision applies only to Mr Stanley Johnson and does not apply to his descendants.
The development also means that Mr Johnson, who campaigned on behalf of Remain in 2016, before suggesting last month that Brexit was “probably a good idea”, retains all EU citizenship rights that British citizens have lost. after the end of the transitional period.
Speaking to The Independent, Mr Johnson said he was still waiting to hear from the French authorities, but added: “I am absolutely pleased to hear that.
“If it is true, I am absolutely happy that we seem to have made some progress in this. I will be happy to visit the French Consulate in London.
He continued: “It means a lot – of course it does not mean that I renounce my British citizenship.
“It’s a very nice gesture. From my point of view, I think it is extremely important to build these bridges – another question is whether I am a bridge – with the EU and, of course, with France. “
The elusive Mr. Johnson was also fluent in Moliere’s language when he appeared on the BFM, the country’s largest news channel, on Friday morning.
“I am very happy,” he said. “It means a lot. My mother was born in Paris. It’s very valuable to me, it’s part of my identity.
As host Bruce Toussaint greeted him, Mr Johnson read a statement to AFP stating that he had “acquired French citizenship on 18 May 2022”.
Mr Johnson said he was technically “always French” through his mother, Irene Williams, although he was born in Penzance, Cornwall. “My mother was born in France, her mother was completely French, as was her grandmother,” he said.
“Europe is more than a single market, it is more than the European Union. I am European in that sense. “
Mr Johnson, a former Member of the European Parliament, confirmed that he had completed his application at the French Consulate in London last November.
In addition to being a former MEP, he is also a former employee of the European Commission and lived with his family in Brussels in the 1970s.
He backed Remain ahead of the 2016 EU referendum, which pitted him against his son Boris Johnson’s position as a participant in the Vote Leave campaign.
However, weeks after Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the former MEP wrote in The Daily Telegraph in April: “I am writing this as a once passionate remnant, but I must admit that my faith in the ‘European project’ has been shaken.
“I said this in a recent radio interview, which caused a great deal of excitement, but I remain of the opinion that Ukraine has shown that Brexit was probably a good idea.
French law does not normally allow the children of their nationals to claim citizenship if their family has been abroad for more than 50 years without exercising their rights.
But their applications can still be considered if they can prove “specific links of a cultural, professional, economic or family nature” with France – a clause to which Mr Johnson refers in his application.
Some 3,100 Britons acquired French citizenship in 2020, according to the latest data available from the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat, making France the second most popular choice for European citizenship after Germany.
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