FPM Says Granting Confidence Hinges on Govt. Program

The Free Patriotic Movement has said that its parliamentary bloc will grant its votes of confidence to Najib Miqati's government based on its program, pouring cold water on the premier’s announcement that the FPM had agreed to give prior confidence.

Speaking to the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal, MP Farid al-Bustani of the FPM-led Strong Lebanon bloc said “the issue of the bloc’s voting on confidence is mainly linked to the content of the government’s policy statement.”

“Should it be reformist, as we’re expecting, and if it clearly mentions the forensic audit process, we will certainly grant confidence to the government,” Bustani added.

“If the statement does not mention this issue then there will be a disaster. The issue of confidence is linked to the policy statement and the bloc will hold a meeting and will declare its stance in an official manner, seeing as no one can pressure us,” the lawmaker went on to say.

The FPM’s political committee had also announced Saturday after a meeting that the bloc’s MPs would await the policy statement to decide whether or not to grant confidence.

MP Nicolas Nahhas of Miqati’s Independent Center bloc meanwhile told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that President Michel Aoun’s “confirmation” that the FPM would grant confidence had been one of the foundations on which the government was formed, noting that “the ministers who are loyal to President Aoun had been picked by (FPM chief Jebran) Bassil.”

FPM sources close to Aoun meanwhile told the daily that the President and the FPM had linked the vote of confidence to the government’s program, noting that Miqati appears to have “forgotten” these remarks.

Miqati had announced upon the government’s formation that, according to Aoun, the FPM would “certainly” grant confidence to the government. The President, however, later said that confidence would be granted to “the government’s program.”