The new head of Marine Le Pen's political party was born in France to Lebanese parents.

Earlier this week, France's far-right presidential candidate stepped down as the head of the National Front (NF) party to focus on winning her presidential campaign. 

Jean-François Jalkh, who formerly served as vice-president has now taken charge of the party

Jean-François Jalkh

Jalkh has been a member of the NF since he was 17 years old, joining in 1974. He has been one of the party's four vice presidents since 2015, was also in charge of organizing the political succession of the party's founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the father of Marine Le Pen, from 2010 to 2011, and has served as an assistant at the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014 on behalf of FN.

The new National Front head has also been connected to several political and financial scandals.

Jalkh is considered to hold some of the most extreme views of the NF. While Marine Le Pen has made efforts to distance herself from her father's comments belittling the Holocaust, Jalkh has previously suggested that the mass extermination of Jews in Europe was not even possible. 

Marine Le Pen

Although Le Pen and her political party are widely know for anti-immigration, xenophobic and Islamophobic views, many Lebanese-French still support her presidential bid, albeit on a smaller scale.  

According to the French Embassy in Beirut, Le Pen placed third among Lebanon-based French voters, taking 1,099 votes out of 17,664 total. However, this was dwarfed by support for François Fillon, who received 5,451 votes. Emmanuel Macron came in second among Lebanon-based voters with 1,432 voters.

Despite Lebanese support, Fillon failed to garner enough votes to make it to the second round of the presidential bid. Le Pen and Macron will now face off on May 7 in the final round.