Change and Reform Lashes Out at March 14, Calls for 'Silencing Rogue Voices'
The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Tuesday called for continuing the dialogues that are underway between a number of parties away from some “rogue voices,” noting the rival March 14 camp is trying to make up for its “losses” through the formation of a national council.
“Any remarks that take us backwards under various alibis are not beneficial and all rogue voices must be silenced,” the bloc said after its weekly meeting in Rabieh in a statement recited by former minister Salim Jreissati.
The bloc's call is an apparent jab at the March 14 forces, which on Saturday strongly criticized Iran and Hizbullah, accusing them of “seeking to prolong the presidential vacuum” and implicating Lebanon in the region's conflicts.
March 14 also declared the formation of a National Council comprising political parties, independents and civil society activists. The coalition's statement, however, did not mention the Change and Reform bloc or the Free Patriotic Movement.
But the bloc launched a vehement verbal attack on Tuesday, saying the March 14 forces “are establishing general secretariats and national councils in vain as if they are trying to resurrect the dead.”
It also called on the coalition to show “openness,” urging it to “revamp its boring rhetoric.”
“They cannot limit their losses through forming national councils over the ruins of general secretariats,” the bloc added, referring to March 14's National Council and General Secretariat.
Separately, Change and Reform said it insists on the so-called "legislation of necessity" to “serve the state's higher interests and approve the draft laws and legitimate financial bills, such as the Eurobonds and certainly the new wage scale.”
“The obstruction of the renaturalization law is purely political and Speaker Nabih Berri told us that he will put it on the agenda of the parliament's general assembly, and this law can be definitely labeled as necessary legislation,” the bloc noted.
As for the presidential crisis, the bloc underlined that it is not awaiting a “regional signal.”
“Confidence has been placed in (FPM chief) General (Michel) Aoun and his project aims to preserve the National Pact,” Change and Reform added.
The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multi-confessional state.
The country has been without a president since Michel Suleiman's term ended on May 25, 2014. Political disputes and electoral rivalry between Aoun and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea have prevented the election of a successor.
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