FPM Official Warns of 'Resounding' Protest over Presidential Choice of Christians
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
A Free Patriotic Movement official has warned that the FPM was mulling to resign from the government or boycott all-party talks over the rejection of certain parties to grant Lebanon's Christians their rights but instead decided to resort to street protests.
A statement issued by the Change and Reform bloc that is led by the founder of the FPM, MP Michel Michel Aoun, on Tuesday was “a clear warning that the movement's leadership will not tolerate the continued attempts to ignore the constitutional rights of Christians,” said the official.
Among the measures that the FPM leadership was mulling to take were the resignation from the cabinet and the boycott of national dialogue sessions. But it dropped such choices and instead resorted to planning street protests, the source told As Safir daily in remarks published on Wednesday.
The FPM official said that the timing and shape of demonstrations depend on the circumstances.
But he warned that the FPM supporters will have a “resounding protest” if the choice of the majority of Christians on the presidency continued to be ignored.
The movement held several protests last year to press for the same demands.
The Change and Reform bloc on Tuesday called on its supporters to await a signal from Aoun to stage popular protests.
“The presidential battle is not a battle of quorum but rather a battle related par excellence to the National Pact,” said the bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting in Rabieh.
The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a state based on a sectarian distribution of power.
Aoun, a presidential candidate, has in recent years accused rival parties of marginalizing Christians in state institutions and has said that the majority of Christians back him for the country's top post.
The members of his bloc and their allies from Hizbullah are boycotting parliamentary sessions aimed at electing a president over lack of consensus on Aoun, causing a lack of quorum.
Baabda Palace has been vacant since the term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014.
23 March 2016, 08:10
115
The FPM should be banned and its members be jailed or deported.
23 March 2016, 08:11
24
In order to join the democratic countries , the constitution in Lebanon has to be changed, beside the fact that it is outdated, according to the democratic basic principles all citizens should have equal rights ; this means no sect or ethnic group should have more privileges than others. As long as this is not understood,the population will never belong to one nation ,but remains prey for foreign powers and this country will remain a fertile ground for continuous turmoil. I sincerely hope that the population will realise this reality.
23 March 2016, 08:25
106
Were Miqati or Omar Karami the Prime Minister's choice of the Sunnis?
23 March 2016, 10:25
106
Family Protected Mazra3a has been a destroyer of the Christians more than anything else. Lebanon is almost completely destroyed because of one mareedman who wants to impose himself as the sole and unique candidate. This is not a dictatorial nomination but a democratic election. But this mentally ill person said almost two years ago :"They will elect me and if they don't, I will destroy everything and they will be forced to elect me". Who wants a psychotic, lunatic, megalomaniac and schyzophrenic person for president???
23 March 2016, 10:33
115
What applies to the FPM applies to nobody. They are the elite, the god chosen ones, the pure, the protectors of Christians entrusted by God and the Church. They are above corruption, incorruptible and formidable.
23 March 2016, 10:43
106
As a Christian I reject that an agent to an external country becomes my president.
23 March 2016, 20:35
01
Those seats were ordered to be given to them when Hizb's black shirts went down on the streets. Nothing legitimate about their installation in the government.
