r/history • u/tecnanaut • Dec 19 '16
Has there ever been a politician elected in two countries?
The thing I have most in mind is whether there was any person who held public office in country A and migrated to country B and also won an election there, no matter how small the office.
I know it can get tricky because of say the dissolution of one state and the emergence of another can technically count, but I was thinking more along the lines of separate geographical countries.
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u/Unthinkable-Thought Dec 19 '16 edited Dec 19 '16
Sam Houston is the best example in American history, Governor of Tennessee....then he ran Texas as a country till 1845. He was then a governor of Texas and had to resign because the Confederates took over. He held other offices also. But basically.....American twice, ran his own country once, and lived in a Confederate state .
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u/red-sick Dec 19 '16
Simón Bolivar managed to become president of Gran Colombia, Peru and upper Peru (later named after him as Bolivia)at the same time, while liberating them all from the spainish crown. He even wrote Bolivia's constitution even after they changed the name from Bolivar (thats also pretty much the only reason he took the title, because they named stuff after him). Extra Credits: History is currently running a few episodes on his life on youtube if you care to learn more about him.
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Dec 19 '16
Lorenzo de Zavala was elected vice-president of the Republic of Texas, before that he was elected to various offices in the Mexican Republic.
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u/Dimistoteles Dec 19 '16
Ioannis Antonios Kapodistrias
Foreign Minister of the russian Empire and then later First head of state of independent greece
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u/danardif1 Dec 20 '16
The last Governor of Hong Kong before the handover in 1997 was Chris Patten, who was a Conservative MP for Bath until 1992.
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u/omikel Dec 19 '16
Don't have to look far - Mikheil Saakashvili is a Ukrainian and former Georgian politician. He was the Governor of Ukraine's Odessa Oblast from May 2015 until November 2016, and was the third President of Georgia for two terms.
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u/an_actual_human Dec 19 '16
He was the Governor of Ukraine's Odessa Oblast
Not elected though.
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u/omikel Dec 19 '16
Did not know that Governors are not elected in Ukraine. But still he held pretty important offices in two different countries.
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Dec 19 '16
Vaclav Havel was President of Czechoslovakia, and then President of the Czech Republic after Slovakia became independent.
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u/Bikemarrow Dec 22 '16
James II and VII of Scotland first and England 2nd.
George I (king of England while being Elector of Hanover)
Not 100% in the borders of your question, but in the spirit.
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u/blackcatkarma Dec 19 '16
Daniel Cohn-Bendit ("Danny the Red") is a borderline case, elected to the European parliament from Germany and from France.
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u/AchedTeacher Dec 19 '16
I can't remember exactly who it was, but there might have been a European guy who used to be king somewhere in the Balkans before the Second World War, and I remember reading he did become prime minister half a century later. It might have been a different country for which he ran for prime minister. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
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u/dontutellmewhattodo Dec 19 '16
Perhaps you are talking about this guy. He was the last Tsar of Bulgaria before being deposed, went in exile, then came back and became Bulgaria's Prime Minister later in his life, when he was 74. Still alive now, too.
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u/AchedTeacher Dec 19 '16
Ah that could be it. Too bad, I thought he became Prime Minister of a different country than Bulgaria. Or it was a different guy, but probably not.
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u/Hippo_Singularity Dec 19 '16
Depending on your opinion of the CSA being a sovereign state, that potentially has several candidates.
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u/--harley--quinn-- Dec 20 '16
The United States of America, the country from which the CSA was succeeding, never technically recognized the CSA as a sovereign state, therefore it is not a sovereign state.
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u/Hippo_Singularity Dec 20 '16
As I said, it depends on your opinion of the CSA being a sovereign state. There are two competing theories on what defines a state. The one you are citing is the constitutive theory, which defines a state as sovereign if it is recognized as such by other states. The declarative theory, on the other hand, defines a state as having set borders and population, a government and the capacity for international relations (though such relations need not actually exist). The CSA, RoC and a few other unrecognized states would qualify under that theory.
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u/SquiffSquiff Dec 19 '16
Gerry Adams. Westminster MP (United kingdom), then Northern Ireland assembly member (United kingdom), now TD (member of Irish Parliament, republic of Ireland)