Lebanon’s ties with France go way back. With a big Lebanese population in France, it’s inevitable that we play some sort of role in the French Presidential Election. There’s actually a tradition where the French presidential candidates are expected to visit Lebanon at some point during the campaign. Marine Le Pen’s visit
stirred some controversy due to her refusal of wearing a headscarf
during a meeting with the grand Mufti.
Jean-François Jalkh
It was just announced that the new head of Marine Le Pen’s political party will be Lebanese-French, Jean-François Jalkh. Marine Le Pen stepped down from the
(FN) political party to focus on her presidential campaign following her victory in the primary election.
had been appointed as the interim chairman and leader for about one week before stepping down. The party announced that he is stepping down to fight a court case where he is accused of denying parts of the Holocaust and inciting hate. Jean-Francois was born in France to Lebanese parents and has been a member of the Front National party since he was 17 years old. He has played a big role in the party. Other than being one of the vice presidents, he was in charge of organizing the succession of Front National’s leadership from Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the party, to his daughter Marine Le Pen.
How the Lebanese-French voted
The French Embassy in Lebanon released the list of how Lebanese-French citizens voted. With a participation rate of 51.12%, 9028 Lebanese-French voted at the embassy. These are the results of the top 3 candidates:
Francois Fillon
: 5451 votes (60.96%)
Emmanuel Macron
: 1432 votes (16.01%)
Marine Le Pen
: 1099 votes (12.29%) Since no candidate won a majority during the first round, French citizens are set to vote again on May 7th. This time, they will be voting for either
or
.
Marine Le Pen Lebanese Facebook Page
Just as Trump unexpectedly had a Lebanese support page on Facebook,
. Although nowhere near as popular, the page has about 500 likes and is constantly updated several times a day with news following Le Pen. We look forward to seeing the results of how the Lebanese-French vote during the final election on May 7th.
