German politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit gets French nationality

GermanGerman Green party politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit has been granted French citizenship nearly a half century after being expelled from France during the May 1968 student uprising, reports The Washington Post.

Once known as the youthful firebrand “Dany the Red,” Cohn-Bendit was one of the best-known leaders of the student revolt against President Charles de Gaulle’s government.

In an email to friends obtained Saturday by The Associated Press, Cohn-Bendit said interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve had called him a day earlier to pass on the good news.

“Now I’m really me: Especially French but also really German!” he wrote in an email from Florida.

Cohn-Bendit, 70, had told German news agency dpa in April that he planned to seek French citizenship, saying that it would suit “the reality of my life. I’m not just German and not just French”.

Read more of this Associated Press story published by The Washington Post.