Jean Messiha

Jean Messiha was born as Hossam Boutros-Messiha in 1970 in Cairo, Egypt. His parents were Coptic Christians, and his father was a diplomat. He lived in Bogotá, Colombia from the age of three to seven. He emigrated to France without speaking French at the age of eight, and he grew up in Mulhouse.

Messiha graduated from Sciences Po, where one of his professors was Henri Guaino. He earned a PhD in Economics. His thesis was about the budgetary policies of the Maastricht Treaty and the Amsterdam Treaty. He graduated from the École nationale d'administration in 2005.

Messiha began his career as a high-ranking civil servant in 2005. He was appointed as deputy under-secretary of management at the Ministry of Defence in 2014.

Messiha became an advisor to Marine Le Pen in 2014. In May 2016, he became the spokesperson of "Horaces", a group of 155 high ranking civil servants and business executives who meet once a month and discuss the National Front party platform. According to the left-leaning Libération, Messiha is the face of the National Front among high-ranking civil servants.

Messiha is a staunch believer in Renaud Camus's theory of the "grand remplacement", whereby white Catholics are being replaced by Muslims. He has also tweeted that Islam is at odds with the French republican system. He is also a critic of the European Union.

Messiha is a candidate in the 2017 French legislative election to represent Soissons, Aisne in the National Assembly.

Messiha became a naturalized French citizen at the age of twenty, and he changed his first name. In February 2017, he was surprised to learn that, in spite of his naturalization, he was still considered an immigrant by the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques.