Deleted member 114175
The challenge: Get an American with no connections to a European country for multiple generations, to immigrate to a European country and become its head of state or head of government.
AHC: American-born head of state/head of government in a European country
It's pre-1900, but Benedict Arnold going into politics after he emigrated and ending up as PM.
If it weren't for the caveat of "no connections ... for multiple generations" I'd say come back in six months and the UK might have a PM with the nationality qualifications to become US President.
If it weren't for the caveat of "no connections ... for multiple generations" I'd say come back in six months and the UK might have a PM with the nationality qualifications to become US President.
The Vietnam era goes differently, and Bill Clinton decides to emigrate permanently to Britain to avoid the draft. He becomes a British citizen and gets involved in the Labour Party. He is elected to parliament and becomes head of the party's centrist wing, which romps to power in the mid-nineties.
If it weren’t for the multiple generations caveat: Winston Churchill.
Not that difficult - currently, for a broader definition of an American, there is Jorge Mario Bergoglio as a head of a European state. Though he fails the "no connection" criteria, being a son of immigrants from Europe. But quite easily it could happen otherwise.
Can you provide a link about Tusk's family being Polish American? I can't find anything on line saying that. (Not that I'm doubting you.)
It wouldn't be that hard to have someone who is US born (and therefore a US citizen, at least earlier in life) to ascend in European politics. Nor would it be hard for children of E. European exiles to return and become head of state or government in a post-socialist country. Several American-born or raised children of exiles did return to Eastern Europe in the 1990s and enter politics. Wouldn't be crazy for one or more of them to wind up head of state or government.
Actually, this describes Former Estonian president Thomas Hendrik Ilves. Though born in Sweden, he grew up in the US, the child of Estonian exiles, and returned after independence was restored. I think he was a citizen. I know that violates some of your conditions, though, since there are family ties.
If you're looking for someone with no recent family connections, I do think that's harder. Easiest if they move to Europe during their childhood, since fluency in language, and connections through school and university all play a big role in forging careers in politics.
The most common paths would be for, say, a US-born child of Europeans (or maybe one American and one European parent) to return to Europe, but that of course violates the condition of "no recent connections."
If you're asking for an American without European parentage to move abroad in adulthood and end up in politics - for example, maybe someone moves abroad for grad school, maybe marries a European, settles down and eventually enters politics - it's not impossible, but still fairly unlikely. Maybe most likely (though still unlikely) in some place like The Netherlands. (I would say even over Ireland and the UK, where the political systems are fairly clubby and dominated by fairly parochial networks.)
Of course if you're avoiding the family stipulation, there's always Boris Johnson. And notwithstanding what I said about the UK you could have some fun with Larry Sanders (Bernie's brother) - maybe he doesn't leave the Labour Party (maybe without Blair), somehow gets elected to a safe seat, and then in circumstances resembling OTL 2015 runs as the left-wing protest candidate instead of Corbyn.
Actually, this describes Former Estonian president Thomas Hendrik Ilves. Though born in Sweden, he grew up in the US, the child of Estonian exiles, and returned after independence was restored. I think he was a citizen. I know that violates some of your conditions, though, since there are family ties.
If you're looking for someone with no recent family connections, I do think that's harder. Easiest if they move to Europe during their childhood, since fluency in language, and connections through school and university all play a big role in forging careers in politics.
The most common paths would be for, say, a US-born child of Europeans (or maybe one American and one European parent) to return to Europe, but that of course violates the condition of "no recent connections."
If you're asking for an American without European parentage to move abroad in adulthood and end up in politics - for example, maybe someone moves abroad for grad school, maybe marries a European, settles down and eventually enters politics - it's not impossible, but still fairly unlikely. Maybe most likely (though still unlikely) in some place like The Netherlands. (I would say even over Ireland and the UK, where the political systems are fairly clubby and dominated by fairly parochial networks.)
Of course if you're avoiding the family stipulation, there's always Boris Johnson. And notwithstanding what I said about the UK you could have some fun with Larry Sanders (Bernie's brother) - maybe he doesn't leave the Labour Party (maybe without Blair), somehow gets elected to a safe seat, and then in circumstances resembling OTL 2015 runs as the left-wing protest candidate instead of Corbyn.
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Maybe if Stuart Merrill had lived longer and become involved in electoral politics. (He had left-wing sympathies, both in the US and France, but AFAIK never ran for office, though he took part in Henry George's mayoral campaign before he returned to Europe for good.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Merrill
https://books.google.com/books?id=qV7yKyMeGB4C&pg=PA170
(It's a little weird that two of the major French Symbolist poets were US-born: Merrill and Francis Vielé-Griffin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Vielé-Griffin)
https://books.google.com/books?id=qV7yKyMeGB4C&pg=PA170
(It's a little weird that two of the major French Symbolist poets were US-born: Merrill and Francis Vielé-Griffin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Vielé-Griffin)
Deleted member 114175
It is probably substantially easier in newly independent, or somewhat newly independent, nations. Éamon de Valera, 3rd President of Ireland, was born in New York City though was moved back to Ireland at two and both parents were from Europe. Well, not much closer to the scenario than Ilves, but was American-born.
There is the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty as well which makes the immigration part easier.
That's an interesting idea. For irony, we could have Charles Joseph Bonaparte become US President at the same time (who wasn't born in France, but his last name is Bonaparte, which is
Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor
I think he was the first American-born member of the Astor family to be raised and educated mostly in the UK. Somehow find a way for him to become PM.
I think he was the first American-born member of the Astor family to be raised and educated mostly in the UK. Somehow find a way for him to become PM.
Probably ASB, but maybe if some shenanigans happen and Thomas Paine somehow comes to power during the French Revolution?
There's also the easy solution of having an American general lead an occupation in Europe, for whatever reason. A European Douglas MacArthur scenario.
There's also the easy solution of having an American general lead an occupation in Europe, for whatever reason. A European Douglas MacArthur scenario.
Just as the Great Depression was starting, the American Communist Frank Waldron "fled to the Soviet Union to avoid criminal charges for his political activities under the California Criminal Syndicalism Act. Waldron returned to the United States in 1935 and assumed the pseudonym Eugene Dennis..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Dennis
Now, the interesting thing is that when Eugene Dennis and his wife Peggy returned to the US in 1935, they had to leave their five year old son Tim behind. "The whole aim was to return home as unobtrusively as possible and not ever refer to the past four years. For this purpose, a five-year-old child speaking only Russian during the five days of the ocean voyage, at passport control and in the first months of our return" was considered by the Comintern to be too great a risk. Peggy Dennis, The Autobiography of an American Communist: A Personal View of a Political Life, 1925-1975, p. 86. Tim grew up a Soviet citizen "Timor T. Timofeev". Timofeev became a leading Soviet academic and director of the Institute for the Study of Labor Movements. As a Soviet academic, Timofeev argued that western Communists should give more attention to the political implications of labor discontent: "Under state-monopoly capitalism the proletariat, struggling for its economic and social rights, inevitably enters into a more and more acute clash not merely with separate monopolies, but also with the entire bureaucratic machinery of the bourgeois state, which defends the interests of the monopolies..." https://books.google.com/books?id=fs2tl0Y-Qo8C&pg=PA160
He seems to have made the transition to post-Communism nicely. As a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences he was listed on the "Russian Editorial Advisory Committee" for the Yale University Press's "Annals of Communism' during the 1990s. https://books.google.com/books?id=MBHSY0bCFWoC&pg=PR2 He may still be alive--all the references I have seen to him give his dates as "1928- " and there is an article listed as co-written by him as late as 2012. https://books.google.com/books?id=T0S3BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA84&
I assume that T. T. Timofeev could not have risen to such a high academic position without being a fairly high-ranking member of the CPSU. However, it's hard for me to see him rising to the very top of Soviet politics--that would be too blatant a reminder of how close the ties between the USSR and the CPUSA were...
Now, the interesting thing is that when Eugene Dennis and his wife Peggy returned to the US in 1935, they had to leave their five year old son Tim behind. "The whole aim was to return home as unobtrusively as possible and not ever refer to the past four years. For this purpose, a five-year-old child speaking only Russian during the five days of the ocean voyage, at passport control and in the first months of our return" was considered by the Comintern to be too great a risk. Peggy Dennis, The Autobiography of an American Communist: A Personal View of a Political Life, 1925-1975, p. 86. Tim grew up a Soviet citizen "Timor T. Timofeev". Timofeev became a leading Soviet academic and director of the Institute for the Study of Labor Movements. As a Soviet academic, Timofeev argued that western Communists should give more attention to the political implications of labor discontent: "Under state-monopoly capitalism the proletariat, struggling for its economic and social rights, inevitably enters into a more and more acute clash not merely with separate monopolies, but also with the entire bureaucratic machinery of the bourgeois state, which defends the interests of the monopolies..." https://books.google.com/books?id=fs2tl0Y-Qo8C&pg=PA160
He seems to have made the transition to post-Communism nicely. As a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences he was listed on the "Russian Editorial Advisory Committee" for the Yale University Press's "Annals of Communism' during the 1990s. https://books.google.com/books?id=MBHSY0bCFWoC&pg=PR2 He may still be alive--all the references I have seen to him give his dates as "1928- " and there is an article listed as co-written by him as late as 2012. https://books.google.com/books?id=T0S3BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA84&
I assume that T. T. Timofeev could not have risen to such a high academic position without being a fairly high-ranking member of the CPSU. However, it's hard for me to see him rising to the very top of Soviet politics--that would be too blatant a reminder of how close the ties between the USSR and the CPUSA were...
It depends on what you define as a recent family connection, but alot of the Romanov descendants ended up in the US. I think one of them was the mayor of Tampa or somewhere similar. If the fall of Communism had gotten reeeaally weird, you could get a restored czar who grew up in Florida
Modern Imperialism
Banned
Italian American or Irish American could become a politician in those countries. Italy and Ireland have very lenient diaspora return laws.
Best bet, IMO, would be someone immigrating while young and following normal higher education after getting their citizenship the standard way. They spend 30 to 50 years in the political system and end up elected.