PARIS: French-Lebanese political journalist Hala Salame, better known to the French public as Lea Salame, is fiercely proud of her Arab roots, and particularly her connection to her homeland.

Despite some early concerns that her background might hinder her career in France, she said her origins had the opposite effect.
“I always thought I would be at a disadvantage when I became a television host, 15 years ago, because all the other women were blue-eyed, French blondes,” she said. “I thought that because of the differences between them and me I would never make it. It took me a while to understand that these very differences, including the fact that I was Lebanese, spontaneous and a bit bold, were responsible for my actions — such as when I told (French President Francois) Hollande that he must be joking.”
Salame has interviewed several French presidents, including Nicolas Sarkozy and Emmanuel Macron. But her interview with Hollande in 2015 proved particularly memorable.
“People still talk to me about (it),” she said. “At the time, there was a flow of refugees from Syria and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, had agreed to accept 30,000 of them. Hollande told us he had the same vision as Merkel and I gasped and told him that was surely a joke. This made me the talk of the town.
“I like to interview Sarkozy because he likes confrontation, is full of life, never refuses a face-off, and fights back. He is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to interviews. What makes interviewing him even more difficult is that he is very nice.”
While Salame’s boldness has helped raise her profile, it is sometimes perceived as aggressiveness or arrogance by people who do not know her well. She counters this by pointing out that when her career began she was determined not to to be dismissed by male colleagues and politicians as a smiling, compliant woman, but seen as an aggressive interviewer.
A familiar presence on television and radio, she reports on French interior policy for TV channel France 2, and hosts a morning show on radio station France Inter. She also presents a cultural program on France 2 called Stupefiant. She has continued to broadcast throughout the coronavirus crisis but, just as it has for many people worldwide, it has affected her work routine.

“I go every morning to France Inter and two times a month to France 2,” said Salame, who was named France’s best interviewer in 2015. “The number of assistant programmers has been reduced to the minimum, and at France Inter my colleague Nicolas Demorand and I sit three meters apart. I always carry my sanitizer and wear my face mask if needed. We are being very careful.
“The situation has also changed my way of conducting interviews, particularly when we are faced with decisions of great magnitude, decisions that might lead to death as well as restrictions on people’s freedom of movement. I am now much calmer when conducting an interview; I let my guests speak and I have become much softer than before.”
Born in 1979, Salame is the daughter of former Lebanese minister Ghassan Salame and Mary Boghossian, who is Armenian. After leaving Lebanon after the civil war at the age of 5, with her parents and younger sister, Louma, Salame attended school and university in Paris. She then spent a year studying at New York University in 2001, where she witnessed the Sept. 11 attacks. This shocking, first-hand experience inspired her to pursue a career in political journalism.
Salame has a three-year-old son, Gabriel, with her partner Raphael Glucksman, a philosopher and member of the European Parliament. Her bond with the Arab world remains strong, and she tries to return to Lebanon once a year, visiting her father’s village, Kfardebian, “to acquaint my son with the country that I come from.”
She added: “I got my character, with its mix of excessiveness and fearlessness, from my parents. When I was a child, the identity issue was always on my mind. I did not know what I was: I was Arab, Armenian and Christian. With time, this mix led me to acknowledge that people can have a thousand identities that mix and coexist in harmony.”
Salame’s father remains a great influence and inspiration.
“He has always been a great part of my life, my career and my studies” she said. “I wanted my father to be proud of me above all else. He is my source of energy.”
Her father, in turn, is full of admiration for his daughter.
“I am very proud of her success,” he said. “The source of that success is her hard work. When she has an important interview, she collects information, prepares notes, and calls many knowledgeable people. She starts by consulting with me, her research assistant. I am her research assistant and that is the job I enjoy most.”