Bassil slams Berri and Geagea, says FPM won't recognize resigned govt.'s 'legitimacy'

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Tuesday hit back at both Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Speaker Nabih Berri and said that the FPM “will not recognize the legitimacy of the resigned government” should there be a presidential vacuum.

“We stress that the caretaker cabinet cannot convene or practice the president's powers. This would lead to constitutional chaos,” Bassil warned in a press conference that followed a meeting for the FPM’s political council.

“We will not recognize the legitimacy of the resigned government following the end of the president’s term and we will consider it to be usurping power and illegitimate at the parliamentary, constitutional, National Pact and popular levels, even if the entire world agrees to support it against us,” the FPM chief cautioned.

Criticizing caretaker PM and PM-designate Najib Mikati, Bassil said: “The PM revealed his intention in the past to some ministers and yesterday he openly announced that he can assume the president's powers.”

Hitting back at Berri, Bassil said that “in the event of vacuum, every minister in the government would be a ‘president.’”

“You will find several ‘Michel Aouns’ in the government,” he added.

“The government's formation does not prevent the election of a president and they must both happen,” Bassil went on to say.

And snapping back at Geagea, Bassil stressed that “Michel Aoun will not exit history nor people's hearts.”

“They are trying to make people forget that they were militia warlords who destroyed Lebanon,” Bassil added.

Geagea “still doesn't know how to count his bloc's members and (Berri) has blamed the electricity crisis on the regulatory committee,” he said.

“One should be part of history in order to be able to expel others from it and his history should be one other than the killing of children, premiers, leaders, clergymen, relatives and honorable fighters,” Bassil added, referring to Geagea.

He also accused Berri of “looting funds inside the country” and Geagea of “receiving political money from abroad.”