With many in France jumping on the populist bandwagon, giving National Front party leader Marine Le Pen the lead in presidential polling, some on the left are desperate for a candidate to “give French people hope.”

Who do they have their eye on to bring hope and change to France? Barack Obama. Yes, seriously.

As ABC News reports, Obama17 signs are posted across Paris, telling citizens to visit a website to sign a petition to get the former U.S. president to enter France’s race. France’s Obama backers are hoping to get 1 million signatures on the petition…for kicks it seems, given that Obama is not French—a requirement of the French presidency.

"At a time when France is about to vote massively for the extreme right, we can still give a lesson of democracy to the planet by electing a French president, a foreigner," the website reads.

The group also told ABC News that this has been on their mind since November, two months before the end of Obama’s tenure in office.

“We dreamed about this possibility to vote for someone we really admire, someone who could lead us to project ourselves in a bright future,” the group said. “Then we thought, whether it's possible or not, whether or not he is French, we have to do this for real, to give French people hope ... Vive la Republique. Vive Obama. Vive la France and the USA."