As expected, both Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande advanced to the second round of the French presidential elections to be held on May 6th.
According to official results, Sarkozy got 26.1% of the votes while Hollande got 29%. The current polls show the Socialist Hollande leading Sakozy 54% to 46% for the second round. The shock of the night, however, was a huge score by the woman of the French “Front National” Marine Le Pen who managed to break the two-party dichotomy of France by getting 18% of the votes, according to the latest results.
Her score will come as a headache for the socialists who are deciding to round cloud nine up until May 6th. If Le Pen endorses Sarkozy, all bets are off.
But political analysis aside, here’s how the situation was in Lebanon yesterday. 15000 French people are registered to vote in Lebanon, out of which 51.5% voted. On top of the French residing in Lebanon, 1600 French residing in Syria are eligible to vote in Lebanon due to the situation in their country. Out of those, only 28% cast their ballots.
As a reminder, in 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy got 51.5% in the first round in Lebanon. This time, however, he got 54.47%, beating Hollande who only got 19.81%.
On the other hand, Marine Le Pen got 9% among French-Lebanese voters, almost double what her father managed in 2007 in Lebanon but still less than the result she got in France.
All foreign territoires put together have Sarkozy ahead of Hollande at 38% to 28.31%. Marine Le Pen came in fourth with 5.34%. The total participation in Lebanon is above the average for French expats, which settled at 40%.
Altogether, here’s yet another elections where Lebanese voters who hold a second nationality go with a right wing candidate.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
Elie, what would you consider the main motivation behind those French passport holders in Lebanon who voted for Le Pen?
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I think the 9% is nothing compared to how the Lebanese-French in France voted :p
Well, Lebanese in France are not grouped in the same category as the ones seen by people as targeted by LePen’s strategy. Many Lebanese French rightfully see Le Pen as not opposing immigration in general but demanding to regulate immigration, especially of those that are less keen to conform to French culture, in a way to help France. Most Lebanese don’t go to France as illegal immigrants and they occupy very high posts over there so their main concern would be illegal immigrants and immigrants abusing tax money, I suppose.
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Yeah the idea that only “white bigoted natives” (like myself, haha) are against soft policies on immigration is a blatan lie. Many people in our Chinese community for instance don’t appreciate illegal immigration or legal immigration who abuse our abundant welfare system. In fact the Chinese are doing better in terms of labor participation and education than natives. The problem is some natives judge immigrants as one big group rather than looking at succesful communites and/or succesful individuals.
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Precisely. I don’t think Lebanese, based on my observations, are judged harshly in France. In fact, they are liked. The whole “mess” is with Algerian and Moroccan communities.
Also on the other hand, individuals don’t talk for communities.
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