Strange Timing: Michele Bachmann Becomes a Swiss Citizen

Former GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann recently became a citizen of Switzerland after her husband claimed his heritage.

“Congresswoman Bachmann’s husband is of Swiss descent so she has been eligible for dual-citizenship since they got married in 1978,” Becky Rogness said in a statement to POLITICO, which first reported the story in the United States. “However, recently some of their children wanted to exercise their eligibility for dual-citizenship so they went through the process as a family.”

Marcus Bachmann reportedly began the process to claim his citizenship on Feb. 15, according to POLITICO. That process was finalized on March 19, giving Michele citizenship as well, the website reported.

Bachmann’s three youngest children are now Swiss citizens too, and her two older children also eligible to apply.

The Minnesota congresswoman was interviewed by Swiss reporters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday while with a group of Swiss parliamentarians and she discussed her family’s heritage.

“My husband is a 100 percent Swiss, and his parents were raised in Switzerland, they were married there, they came to the United States, they bought a farm in Wisconsin and raised their three sons there,” Bachmann said in the interview.

When a reporter reminds her that she is now eligible to run for office in Switzerland, she laughed, saying the the competition would be very stiff “because they are very good,” referring to the parliamentarians with her.

Asked what she likes about the European nation, Bachmann said it’s “tough not to find a place to like in Switzerland,” citing the country’s beauty and famous chocolates.

AK Note:

As of 1990 (it could have changed since) only a man can pass on citizenship to his spouse, a Swiss woman cannot do the same. The Swiss police are very efficient at implementing immigration policy. The day your visa expires they escort you to the airport.  The joke is Switzerland is 5 million police watching 1 million immigrants. 

I was once offered a job at Swissair in Zurich, but I learned if I had married a Swiss woman it still would not guarantee me Swiss citizenship. The decision to turn down the job was difficult, I had many wonderful Swiss friends, but it turned out to be the right one as Swissair ceased operations in 2002.  

The new national air carrier SWISS is based out of Basel. A city known for chemical production. Basel lies Rhine river, any chemical pollution spills flow into Germany not Switzerland. The Swiss think of every contingency.