In this question it was established that the US President can be a dual citizen as nothing in the Constitution forbids it. This makes me wonder if there are currently any heads of state who are also citizens of a second country? Obviously excluding honorary citizenship or situations where the second citizenship has been renounced before taking the office.
asked Oct 5, 2017 at 19:03
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4Does Elizabeth II have the citizenship of each of her realms?– chirluOct 5, 2017 at 19:10
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8@chirlu no: politics.stackexchange.com/questions/4472/…– JonathanReezOct 5, 2017 at 19:12
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4No joke about Carles Puigdemont being both Catalan and Spanish ?– EvargaloNov 13, 2017 at 9:08
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2He is not a currently head of anything and was “only” a head of government but Saad Hariri is apparently a dual Saudi-Lebanese citizen.– RelaxedNov 13, 2017 at 12:43
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Might be worth relaxing the criterion to people who have been dual citizens and heads of state or leaders. Boris johnson nearly was (born in USA, only renounced dual citizenship for tax reasons). British monarchs only stopped being heads of Hannover with Queen Victoria as hannover didn't allow female succession.– matt_blackJun 26 at 12:09
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9 Answers
The current president of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, is a dual Somali-US citizen.
Andrej Babiš, the winner of the 2017 election in Czechia holds dual Czech and Slovak citizenship. He became the Prime Minister and Head of Government, after coalition negotiations in December 2017.
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1Andrej Babiš isn't head of state of Czechia, Miloš Zeman is. Jan 15, 2020 at 13:46
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1Or, to be more specific. The president is the head of state in the Czech Republic, not the Prime Minister. Jan 15, 2020 at 15:44
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2I'm interpreting the question to concern "people holding similar positions to the President of the USA". The President of the USA is both Head of State and Head of Government. In parliamentary systems these postions are usually separate. So I consider it reasonable to mention Babis. He is a leader of his country who holds dual nationality. This wider interpretation makes for more interesting answers. Especially as many head of states are monarch and not "citizens" of any country. [citation needed]– James KJan 15, 2020 at 22:19
Salome Zurabishvili, recently elected President of Georgia, is a dual French-Georgian citizen.
She had a long professionnal career working as a diplomat for France, including acting as the Ambassador of France to Georgia in 2003-2004.
Edit June 2023: I have to retract this answer. It seems that she renounced her French nationality back in 2018, prior to running for Presidency.
“This decision was not simple, but it was necessary. The President of Georgia cannot simultaneously be a citizen of another country.” - Salome Zurabishvili
Saad Hariri, the current/former/it's complicated prime minister of Lebanon, is also a Saudi citizen.
He's not a head of state, but a head of government.
Yes, the head of state of Vatican is expected to keep his original citizenship. At the time of writing this, Francis I is a citizen of Argentine. I do not know what would happen if a citizen of a country that automatically strips the citizenship if someone acquires another citizenship (such as Slovakia or Japan) is elected.
The Wikipedia article on Alberto Fujimori (President of Peru in the 90s) states that he has both Japanese and Peruvian Nationality, and this had been obtained by his parents, who were both Japanese citizens. I'm slightly doubtful, as I understood that Japan doesn't allow for dual nationality, but the situation may have been different in the past, or there may be special arrangements for Peruvian Japanese.
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3Japan does allow for dual citizenship, but only if the Japanese nationality was obtained at birth. If someone tries to become Japanese through naturalization, then he/she has to renounce his/her other nationality/nationalities. Oct 5, 2017 at 21:38
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5Japanese nationality law simply says for a dual national who fails to choose nationalities by age 22, the Minister of Justice can require them by written notice to make such a choice (i.e. renounce other nationality or lose Japanese citizenship) within one month. But if the Japanese government never makes such a request, the person can presumably remain a dual national indefinitely. Oct 8, 2017 at 3:09
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2@StefanSkoglund I know. But The emperor is not the Head of State of Peru. That is the President of Peru.– James KJan 15, 2020 at 22:17
The President of France is always the Co-Prince of Andorra and The British monarach is a citizen of her commonwealth.
answered Dec 21, 2018 at 19:38
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But the prime minister of France does not necessarily have dual nationality.– phoogDec 22, 2018 at 9:50
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3@RadovanGarabík fair enough, but my comment remains true after correcting it: The president of France does not necessarily have dual nationality. (Furthermore, Clint, the British monarch is not a citizen of any country, odd as that may seem.)– phoogJan 14, 2020 at 18:27
In case of Sweden, the head of state, the monarch can't be a citizen of another country.
Our citizenship laws does now allow dual citizenship ie a swede can now apply for citizenship in the US and keep his/her swedish (i note this because we had a case of swedish OS-hockey player who had to leave the troupe after the first three games in Nagano in 1998.)
The permission of dual-citizenship also includes politician including members of Riksdagen and the head-of-government including all the ministers.
This is muddled, partly because the law and the material considering transfer of head of state (? successionsordningen) only says that person eligible as next head of state (monarch) must be a swedish citizen and being a member of the swedish church.
The citizenship laws changed in 2001 and 2003, well after the material about successionsordningen (which is from 1977-1978 with other changes since that.)
