Bassil threatens to run for president, says FPM to propose 'list of names'
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Sunday announced that he might nominate himself for the presidency should the other parties reject two FPM proposals for consensus.
“There is a financial, economic, social, health, educational, institutional, judicial and legal collapse, and there are fears that it might turn into a security one. They are threatening us with it and incitement is ongoing to justify the election (as president) of the ‘security necessity candidate,’” Bassil said in a televised address.
Bassil’s statement was an apparent jab at Army Commander General Joseph Aoun.
“The army chief is violating the laws of defense and public accounting, usurping the defense minister’s powers by force and acting as he pleases with the army’s funds and assets,” Bassil added.
Commenting on recent remarks, the FPM chief said it would be “an act of national and political madness to think of electing a president without the Christians.”
He added that a recent stance by Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat, who “rejected” that Christians be sidelined, was a “patriotic and responsible stance.”
“It can be capitalized on to build common life in the heart of Mount Lebanon,” Bassil added.
The FPM chief also revealed that his Movement has devised a “preliminary draft” containing the names of several potential presidential candidates.
Those candidates are “better than the proposed ones,” Bassil said.
“We have started a round of contacts with MPs and blocs to hear their proposals and to agree with them on a host of names,” he added.
He said that another suggestion would be “agreeing to any candidate who has chances on the condition that, prior to his election, the blocs supporting him would implement reformist demands,” most notably “the decentralization law and the law for recovering transferred funds.”
“Should the first and second endeavors fail and our stances be considered as resulting from weakness rather than keenness, I will seriously think of running for president regardless of loss or win, so that we at least preserve the principle of legitimate representation,” Bassil added.
29 January 2023, 16:53
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According to the 2023 edition of the Larousse-
Gibran Bassil: Individual with a disregard for societal norms and a tendency towards delinquent behavior.
29 January 2023, 17:49
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it would be “an act of national and political madness to think of electing a president without the Christians.”
The usual FPM hypocrisy:
In 2011 after the "Black Shirts" show of force, when Nasrallah hand picked Mikati for the post of PM, Michel Aoun had no problem voting him in without the major Sunni representation. Aoun even boasted that there were Sunni in the government, even thought those barely represented themselves let alone the majority in the Sunni community.
29 January 2023, 17:58
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“There is a financial, economic, social, health, educational, institutional, judicial and legal collapse.."
Michel Aoun promise kept:
Since 1988 when Michel Aoun was selected By Amine Gemayel as internym PM with the singled mandate to help elect a President, Aoun made hundreds even thousands of lofty promises. One of those promises was that he will topple the "Establishment". That last promise is the only one he's ever kept.
29 January 2023, 18:04
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Unfortunately those in charge from 1990 to 2005 and then from 2005 on, who were able to fully apply Taef, are the ones standing in the way of it's full implementation.
Also some major forces view decentralization as a form of partition.
