A petition aiming to persuade Barack Obama to run for the French presidency in 2017 has been signed by more than 40,000 people.

A website was set up a week ago to gather signatures as part of a campaign that has now been widely publicised.

It comes after two of the leading candidates in this year's election race have been hit by a series of scandals.

The website, called Obama2017.fr, said: "The French are ready to make radical choices. That is good because we have a radical idea to propose to them.

Image: The Obama2017.fr website which is collecting signatures

"Faced with the announced failure of the next presidential election, we think it is time to move to the 6th Republic to get France out of its lethargy.


"To launch this 6th Republic, we wish to strike a blow by electing a foreign President at the head of our beautiful country.

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"Barack Obama has completed his second term as President of the United States on January 21, why not hire him as President for France?"

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Posters have been put up in Paris promoting the campaign and the organisers have been interviewed on several national TV stations.

Since then several US and other European stations have featured the people behind the stunt.

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The website says it aims to collect one million signatures by 15 March in order to persuade the former US president to stand.

It may struggle however.

The French Code Electoral requires all French presidency candidates to be citizens and to be qualified to vote, neither of which applies to Mr Obama.

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One of the website's founders, who has only revealed his name as Antoine, has admitted to media outlets that it is a "joke" but says it is done with a serious purpose, by showing that people in France are "fed up" with politicians.

Conservative candidate Francois Fillon and far-right contender Marine Le Pen, who until recently led the polls, are both mired in legal investigations over the misuse of public money.

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They are both vying with rivals including centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron to claim the keys to the Elysee Palace.

The first round of voting is 23 April, with the two top contenders in the election going through to a run-off on 7 May.