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"The République is universal and therefore spans the entire planet."

That's a strange interpretation.

Regarding elections the key is that the French Republic put a very strong emphasize on equality among citizens. So all citizens should be represented in Parliament and all citizens have the right to vote for the President.

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Pretty sure it's a dig at the US where people in many of its overseas (basically only Hawaii) territories don't get to vote in the presidential election, while it sounds like there is universal suffrage in all of France's territory.

Yes, more than French territory in fact (that's what he was getting at but that's not really the meaning of 'universal'): Every French citizen in the world has the right to vote in Presidential elections and every French citizen in the world is part of a parliamentary constituency and can vote for a Representative/MP. Usually the polling station is the nearest Consulate or Embassy.

For instance there is a French MP who is elected in North America to represent French citizens who live in the USA and Canada in the French Parliament [1]. Map of the constituencies [2] (The MP for the 11th constituency must max out on air miles).

[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premi%C3%A8re_circonscription_...

[2] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ais_%C3%A9tablis_hor...

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