George Clooney and his wife Amal Clooney at the screening of the film "The Boys In The Boat," December 3, 2023, in London. ALBERTO PEZZALI / ALBERTO PEZZALI/INVISION/AP
A junior member of President Emmanuel Macron's government on Wednesday, December 31, criticized the French passports given to Hollywood superstar George Clooney despite him speaking poor French, saying the move suggested a "double standard."
The news of Clooney, his wife Amal Clooney and their two children becoming French comes ahead of language requirements for citizenship being toughened for everyone else under new immigration rules from January 1.
"Personally, I understand the feeling of some French people of a double standard," Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a junior interior minister, told the France Info radio station. "We need to be careful about the message we're sending." Her boss, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, and the foreign ministry however defended the decision.
The civil code states that "French nationality may be conferred by naturalization, upon the proposal of the minister of foreign affairs, to any French-speaking foreigner who applies for it and who contributes through their distinguished service to France's influence and the prosperity of its international economic relations."
