Bassil urges new president through dialogue or successive sessions

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has noted that “the election of a president alone is not the solution.”

“The crisis will be repeated every six years as long as our constitution remains the same,” Bassil said in a speech in Bsharri.

“Our constitution was devised to protect the components, but they are trying to impose a president on us,” Bassil lamented.

“The solution is either to elect a president directly by the people or not to use the issue of quorum for obstruction,” he added.

“We hope to go elect a president through dialogue and understanding or through successive (electoral) sessions. This is how the road to salvation begins,” Bassil went on to say.

Referring to the FPM’s ongoing dialogue with Hezbollah, Bassil said his Movement is “making use of this constitutional juncture to try and achieve two national demands” -- administrative decentralization and the trust fund.

“Broad decentralization does not alter the state’s central authority and has nothing to do with the foreign or defense policies. It rather allows every region to be independent with its revenues,” he explained.

He added: “The trust fund allows to manage the state’s income through the private sector … which would secure additional revenues and contribute to returning a part of depositors’ funds.”

“There should be consensus on decentralization and the trust fund regardless of our problems over domestic and foreign policies,” Bassil urged.