The head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, revealed that the President of the Republic and the movement did not request a "blocking third" as a condition for forming the government. He stated, "Even if we wanted it, we would have fought a battle we would take pride in; thus, we did not demand the blocking third because, in a government of independent specialists, the number is theoretical and meaningless."
In a speech today, Bassil affirmed that the movement desires a government quickly, considering "it is unreasonable for the presidency to want to lose the remaining time." He continued, "Let the government be headed by Saad Hariri without our participation, and let him form it with specialists." He added, "We are open to any solution that respects the charter, adheres to the constitution, and safeguards rights, but they understand our leniency as weakness, and our silence in the face of daily violations as a defeat." He noted that the first internal reason delaying the formation of the government is diverging from the French initiative, while the second is deviating from the rules, regulations, constitution, and charter.
Bassil pointed out that there is ongoing work in the region toward a Sunni-Shiite understanding and clarified that the movement supports it. However, he warned, "Some think they can translate this into a new quad alliance that isolates Christians, but that will not happen because we do not isolate, and 'Hezbollah does not play under the table.'"
He addressed those causing the people's suffering to exploit it to pressure and politically undermine them, saying, "They know that the people's pain is our pain." He added, "We thought the crisis of October 17, 2019, would push the then-Prime Minister to take responsibility alongside his constitutional partner, the President, rather than turn against him, stab him in the back, resign without informing him, and ride the wave of the uprising to shirk responsibility and place it on him."
During his speech, Bassil directed remarks to the Lebanese judiciary, stating, "Stay away from the demand for international judiciary intervention and restore our confidence in you, and restore hope to the people for the truth." He deemed that appointing a new judge in the port case is timely to expedite the file and correct many judicial errors that occurred, stating, "The case should not end by limiting the issue to employees to cover for the rest because their utmost crime is negligence, while others committed murder."
He emphasized, "There are no words of consolation for the victims' families of the port explosion except for the truth because the right to know is sacred, and after six months of the disaster, it is our right to know who is responsible and what caused it." He expressed hope that the decision to recapitalize banks would be a means to reorganize the sector, restore reserves, recover some funds for depositors, and take necessary actions against those who do not comply. He noted that the authority has left nothing undone to protect people's funds from being smuggled abroad, but neither the central bank, nor the parliament, nor the judiciary has responded.
