British citizens who have previously been able to vote in municipal elections in France, Germany and many other EU member states have automatically lost their right to vote due to Brexit.
Can British people vote in French elections post Brexit?
The rules affecting British citizens abroad are not uniform across Europe and some member states, including the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland and Sweden do allow non-citizens to vote.
In Finland, there is a two year residency requirement, while in the Netherlands, non-nationals need to have been resident for five years before they can vote.
The loss of voting rights by British citizens abroad is due to the fact that UK nationals have lost their status as EU citizens.
EU nationals in the UK are still EU citizens and under UK legislation, EU citizens do currently retain the right to vote and stand in local elections.
This will continue despite Brexit unless the Government legislates to deny EU citizens their vote.
Given that many British nationals have lost the vote in EU member states, the Government may consider denying EU citizens the vote as a kind of retaliation.
This would be a hugely retrograde and unfair step on top of the three years of limbo and uncertainty which the government has already visited on the 3.6 m EU citizens currently resident in the UK.
It is vital that we step up our campaign in the UK for EU citizens to continue to be able to stand and vote in local elections.
We also want to see the right to vote restored to Britons already resident in the EU, and will work with individual member states to achieve this.
The right to vote is a fundamental building block of a liberal, inclusive society and it is appalling that citizens who have exercised life choices based on their free movement rights should be penalised in this way.
Please consider joining New Europeans a member so we can continue to fight this injustice.
We also ask you to chip in £10, £25 or what you can afford so we can continue to campaign for an inquiry into the #DeniedMyVote scandal of 2019 when over 1.7 million EU citizens and Britons abroad were denied the vote and to press for the current voting rights of EU citizens to be maintained and extended.
To chip in to the campaign, please use the link below: