Gemayel: President Must Have Economic Vision, Ability to Neutralize Lebanon from Region Conflicts

Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel has stressed that the country needs a president who has an “economic vision” and the ability to “neutralize Lebanon from the ongoing conflicts in the region instead of dragging it into them.”

“For the country to witness a new beginning, it needs the election of a president – a competent, upright president who has an economic vision and who has the ability to oversee files and pull Lebanon out of its crises,” said Gemayel.

“The president must have the ability to improve the country, run the cabinet … and shift us from one state to another,” the MP added.

He said the country's next president must also “understand the young generation and have an economic plan that can create jobs for them.”

“A strong president is not strong in himself but rather in the support he receives from the Christian parties, as was the case prior to the Taef Accord,” Gemayel noted.

He added: “The president's strength lies in his ability to protect Lebanon from all forms of terrorism and to neutralize it from the ongoing conflicts in the region instead of dragging it into them, while preserving its ties with the countries of the region.”

Warning that the country cannot withstand further “selfishness,” Gemayel emphasized that Lebanon's fate should not hinge on the election of a certain candidate as president.

On Wednesday, Gemayel had stressed that his party's parliamentary bloc will not vote for Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh or Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun in the presidential elections.

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and the FPM, Hizbullah and some of their allies have been boycotting the electoral sessions.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri launched late in 2015 a proposal to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but his suggestion was rejected by the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.

The Hizbullah-led March 8 camp, as well as March 14's Lebanese Forces, have argued that Aoun is more eligible than Franjieh to become president given the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Y.R.