The "Free Patriotic Movement" held its seventh national conference titled "We Were... And We Will Stay" today at 12:30 PM in "Forum de Beirut" to announce its candidates for the parliamentary elections, with significant popular and official attendance, including a speech by the head of the movement, MP Gebran Bassil.
The celebration was attended by current and former ministers and MPs from the movement, regional officials, members of the electoral machinery, as well as representatives from allied parties and popular delegations.
Following speeches from activists within the movement, there was a detailed explanation of the conference's aims, which include fighting corruption, restoring the rights of depositors, revealing the officials responsible for the Beirut port explosion, protecting national sovereignty, achieving financial and economic recovery, establishing a civil state, and other public interest topics.
In his speech, Bassil stated: "O heroes of the Free Patriotic Movement, 33 years have passed since the cry of a leader who moved a nation to liberate the homeland. The voice exclaimed 'Freedom, Sovereignty, Independence' and laid the groundwork for the liberation fight. We endured for 15 years to achieve liberation, and we are ready to endure for years to achieve freedom. Do not be afraid; we will endure and we will win; lies do not last. Look at how their lie on March 14, 2005 fell. It has been 33 years since the 'original March 14' in 1989, which remained and continued with us after the mask fell from 'false March 14.' The genuine March 14 stood firm, while the false one fell. Just as we are the genuine revolution, we endure and stay, and they are the false revolution and will fall. 33 years, a third of a century of struggle and oppression, to prove the equation between our truth and their lies. The truth always wins, and we are witnesses to the truth and integrity."
He went on: "There is a large party in Lebanon, the party of corruption, like a chameleon. The color changers thrived on gains during the era of guardianship, and when the guardianship ended, they changed their skin and rode the wave of freedom. Then they refused to give up their gains, failed reform, and caused the collapse in 2019. They then changed their skin again and became known as a revolution. They exploited people's pain to solidify their gains during the revolution. They transferred their money abroad and prevented people from withdrawing their money domestically. They prevented the enactment of the capital control law to continue transferring their funds abroad and blocked the law for the recovery of funds so they wouldn't be forced to return people's money. In both cases, people's money is stuck in banks, and its value declines, while they enjoy their money abroad, with its value increasing. Thus, they are the colorful, climbing financiers who attached themselves to the false revolution, while the genuine revolution of the movement remained alone demanding people's rights and calling for forensic auditing, capital control, the recovery of funds law, asset and account disclosures, and accountability of the central bank governor, working on a financial recovery plan to distribute losses fairly."
He continued: "They fled, and we remained alone fighting, because we are not on the take or the sellout, while they are quiet as they are financed by an embassy or the governorship and its affiliates. 'Everyone except us,' this has shown on the street and on television: those with money control the media, while those without are controlled by it. This has also manifested in the megacenter. Those with money do not want the megacenter because they rely on transporting people at their own expense, while those like us who have no money cannot transport them. Half a million is the price of the canister. The chameleon doesn't just change its color; it also changes the truth and tries to change our color: the thief and the corrupt want us to be like them. This is moral assassination, which is much harder than physical murder. A bullet kills you once, but a lie and a rumor kill you every time. Since 2005, they have waged a political assassination campaign against us, and do not be surprised: the criminal, even if they physically escape jail, remains imprisoned in thought and seeks to kill. They do not have the cover to kill physically; they kill politically. The important thing is to kill. They intensified the campaign in 2019, adopted the revolution when they were partners in government, and they would never have agreed with us if it weren't for the share; they only disagreed with us over the share. They take your share and hit you with authority. They criticize the quota in public and negotiate it in secret to hit you with the spirit of the agreement which is 'we stop together' with the president for reform. Their whole project is to topple the president and the movement and distort the image to win the elections through lies and foreign money. What is their project? To fail, not to reform. To destruct, not to build. Their project is to destroy electricity, sabotage dams, obstruct gas and oil extraction, hinder the recovery plan, obstruct the recovery of funds, and block forensic audits, blocking, blocking, blocking."
He said: "Their project is darkness, to darken people's hearts and eyes, so they no longer see the truth and go to the elections as victims of the prevailing lie. Someone destroys the country to hold their opponent responsible and win against them; it is a destructive mind that considers everything that destroys the country to be in their favor in elections. And now, a new project to increase people's wrath: supermarkets that accept cash, and banks that do not pay cash, and eat, O people. God knows to where they want to take the dollar in the elections."
He added: "Their project for the elections is 'toppling Gebran and the movement,' not reforming the state and the economy. One cancels their party with the goal of 'toppling Gebran and the movement.' The second brings money from abroad to distribute to the media with the title 'toppling Gebran and the movement.' The third brings a sponsor of 30 million to fund the project 'toppling Gebran and the movement.' My friend, give us half of that for Batroun to create development and job opportunities, and I will step down myself and save you half. We tell the countries that cooperated with us that we are national and honest people, and we do not take money. They want to work with collaborators and thieves and pay money, and their result is always failure. Countries that wish to take hold of a nation work with collaborators, and countries that want to stand by a nation work with nationalism. This is the difference between a collaborator and a patriot! Collaborator? You take money. National? You eat sanctions. The project is to overthrow us; therefore, they abolish district 16 and prevent the megacenter, and tomorrow, they will prohibit oversight over financial expenditures."
He continued: "The chameleon changed its stance and abolished district 16, depriving Lebanese abroad of running for election and representation directly by deputies among them, giving them the option to vote between the 128 interior deputies or the 6 from abroad. The chameleon changed its stance on the megacenter, abolished it, and those who are not linked to the system are not allowed to be elected, while those who are connected with it transport them at their own expense. The chameleon will tomorrow walk the streets at night in the clothes of the revolution, human rights, disguising itself in the garb of a nun distributing money and corrupting an entire society, while international supervisory bodies watch. In the past, they brought weapons into our society and instigated uprisings and assassinations, and now they inject political money into our society to corrupt it and extort it due to its need and weakness. They robbed him of his money and buy his vote with it. The chameleon in the elections changes its name and becomes organizations and associations and other terms, but in the end, the operator is one and the financier is one, and tomorrow they will join a single project with the great chameleon, the head of the false revolution, and its inspirer and ascetic. They gather on the foreign project and disagree among themselves at home. Suppose they win the elections and become the imaginary majority. Will they disarm Hezbollah or prevent it from entering the government? They will submit to the outside, keeping the displaced and refugees, and keeping their hands on people's money and Lebanon's riches. Yes, this is the most dangerous; their financial policy since 1990 has impoverished Lebanon and the Lebanese to control them so that they become prisoners to the imposed solution, in short, the 'Deal of the Century' and the settlement of Palestinians. Therefore, we talk about investing in water and gas wealth and connecting Lebanon with pipeline networks to become part of the stability and prosperity of the region."
He said: "They do not want Lebanon to be stable and prosperous but rather submissive and begging at the gates of countries. Our victory over the enemy is not enough to be achieved only with weapons; it must also be through prosperity. We will not have won if they are prosperous and we are poor. Therefore, I advocate a solution for the maritime borders that preserves our rights to the gas underneath the waters because the waters belong to no one but the gas belongs to us. And this, O wise guys, is not in return for sanctions! Sanctions will not be lifted from me as long as there are elections. In conclusion, they want to bind Lebanon financially, while we want to liberate it."
Bassil added: "On March 14, 1989, the general launched the battle for sovereignty liberation, and on March 14, 2022, under his watch, we declare it: a war to liberate the economy of Lebanon and the deposits of Lebanese. On October 17, the party of the chameleon and the false revolution thought they had finished us. And on August 4, they thought they had blown us up, along with the capital and the port. In fact, they blew up the dreams of the youth, and they thought that they would bury us merely by accepting to exchange the reality of the port for our political interests. Where did their lie about the exchange go? Where did the reality of the port go? Why the silence regarding the failure to issue the preliminary decision? Do they leave it unissued so that they can benefit from it in the elections? They hold elections over the blood and at the cost of the truth, and later, the truth may emerge, but it is no longer important as long as it is issued after the elections. They believed they could bury us, but as long as we are free, no one can bury us while we are alive. We are here, and we will stay. You have not finished us, nor will you finish us. And now you have conducted your statistics and you are surprised. We remained with the strength of the people to restore their hope for a strong Lebanon. We remained and will remain to put an end to the destructive mind, so that in May the people will have a choice between a team that destroyed and impoverished and obstructed (who did not allow us - and did not allow you), and a team that corrected, reformed, sacrificed, and fought to allow you and the nation to thrive."
He continued: "My family in the Free Patriotic Movement, what they could not take from us in war, we will not allow them to take through impoverishment, and what they could not take through corruption, we will not allow them to take through elections. We extended our hand to everyone through agreements, not deals, to walk all together in a reform project for the country. They rode on our shoulders in the 2018 elections, and when the time for confrontation came, they fled from the bloc like thieves in the night, and rode on the pain of the people. They all gathered and began to outbid each other in demonizing us and racing to pay whoever insults us more. They gathered against us because nothing binds them except being against us. We stood firm. We will secure electricity, we will build dams, we will extract and export oil and gas, we will recover funds, we will develop a system, and we will build a state. This will is something no one will break because it is intertwined with faith, and hope is something no one will erase because it is built on action."
Bassil said: "My Lebanese family, in May we have an appointment to confront the liars. We are going armed with our integrity, while they are armed with political money. We are victims of their targeting and carry the wounds of their falsehood, but we are steadfast and live with hope for tomorrow. Unfortunately, elections alone will not work great change since in Lebanon, the majority is a theory; the grand promises associated with the majority are an electoral lie. Conversely, elections can primarily be a milestone separating a fallen regime from a new one that must be born, and we cannot be absent from it as you and your rights would be absent. We cannot fail to be around the table representing you and participating in shaping your future, nor can we be absent from the peaceful change that must occur from within institutions. Our vision for the system is prepared and documented, emerging from the Taif Agreement, sealing its gaps and completing its implementation, based on establishing a civil state in all its meanings (especially a unified personal status law), such that the state is centralized in its army, foreign policy, and national currency, with extensive financial and administrative decentralization, and there should be a sovereign fund managing state properties and facilities that secures the necessary revenues to provide people with fair and equitable services, and finally, a constitutional council and an electoral law with an extensive district. Ask the candidates: Will they, perhaps, support such a state and pledge to enact a law for extensive decentralization?"
He emphasized that "elections can secondly be an opportunity for Lebanese to recover their money if they elect deputies who commit to passing laws that 1) compel those who transferred their money abroad to return it to be distributed among all depositors, especially small ones, and 2) compel deputies, ministers, and employees to disclose their assets and properties so that people can distinguish between the decent and the corrupt, and 3) compel the adoption of capital control and forensic auditing, and a financial recovery plan that commits to unifying the exchange rate of the dollar and restructuring the banking sector to be a funder for investment rather than encouraging borrowing for consumption. Ask the candidates who pledges to enact these laws? If not, do not vote for them. And if yes, ask them why they evade passing them in Parliament as long as the laws exist there? Elections can be thirdly an opportunity to enact laws that encourage refugees to return to Syria. Over the years, we have proposed several laws, including one that returns foreign border entrants who enter illegally, and legislation that penalizes and prevents a displaced person holding a displacement card from returning to Lebanon if they leave for Syria, as they will not then be considered displaced, and a law that prohibits the displaced from acquiring a displacement card and a work permit simultaneously, and if they do so, they will be punished, and if they repeat it, they will be expelled. Will the deputies commit to enacting these laws and others to ensure the return of the displaced? Elections could fourthly be a clear signal to Christians and Muslims if they want to maintain balanced partnership and the importance of Christian presence in Lebanon and the East, and on the symbolism of the presidency that a directly elected person represents the republic for two terms, the first among Christians and the second among all Lebanese. Then the president would have a representative nature for his component and for all Lebanese, thus eliminating the fear of a presidential vacuum, or postponement or extension, but a periodic and binding entitlement, participated in by the entire people. Will the candidates dare to adopt this law and this constitutional amendment?"
He said: "Elections can fifthly be a station to affirm Lebanon's identity, its cultural and religious diversity, and its civilizational accumulation. No one, neither a team nor a component nor a foreign state, can impose on Lebanon an identity different from its identity or control the minds of its free sons. Translating our diversity would be by establishing a Senate based on the Orthodox law with legislative powers linked to the specificity of Lebanese components, and thus no one can dominate anyone's specificity or change their culture, so diversity remains a sacred and protected right for every Lebanese. Who dares among the candidates to adopt this law and this constitutional amendment in order to stop the series of frightening Lebanese? I raise these electoral and legislative challenges once again before the candidates and declare to the Lebanese my readiness and the commitment of the Strong Lebanon bloc to present all these laws, knowing that some of them we previously submitted to the parliamentary council. Will they dare? Will they commit, or will they lie and, as usual, escape?"
He added: "My family in the movement, their project is to eliminate us, and our project is to revive the country and protect existence. Our project is a successful state, a state of production and sovereignty, and their project is to besiege us to exclude us. Yes, their project is to overthrow us, even if it costs them to create an international alliance against us. On the premise that we conduct elections together in Lebanon, we have become facing countries, but we will not allow them to besiege us, we must secure allies for the elections. The hand that extended to us for the electoral alliance is Hezbollah, just as we extended our hand to it on February 6, 2006 when they tried to isolate it. They want to strangle and isolate us, but we breathe freedom, and with our strength and our alliance, we will succeed. This law for fair representation is based on well-crafted electoral alliances to secure the maximum number of seats. Why should we give up seats that are our right through preferential votes? If we do not enter a list, we will not win it, and as long as we are on a list, we win it through our strength and our representation size. These are seats for us, and we fought for a law that grants them to us. In the proportional system, we gave up seats in Mount Lebanon to compensate for the representation of our people in Beirut, the South, Bekaa, and the North. Do you want us to give up on them and leave them for others who once laid hands on them? If someone can ask how we sit on a list with people who do not resemble us, I answer, who resembles us? And who do we resemble? Shall we stay alone? We sit on an electoral list for election day, and after that, each one of us sits in their bloc or party or trend and makes their political alliances. Just as we sit together, and we do not resemble each other at a dialogue table, or at the cabinet or parliament table, after that everyone goes back to their house and their bloc. This country is a partnership, and we are compelled to sit together in it, as no one can rule alone, nor does anyone have the majority or the legitimacy alone. We must talk to each other to secure the legitimacy and majority for any decision or project or law we want to undertake. And this law, like the country, we share in with each other on the lists to elect our members. If we are asked: Isn't it better to stay alone and secure our own without winning seats? That is true, but we can secure ourselves and win our seats, without one being at the expense of the other, meaning a seat is not at the expense of a principle. The disaster would be if we lose both, but why can't we win both? How? We form electoral alliances and remain politically free. This means we do not give up our cause or engage in corruption or dependency. We create the alliance and win the representatives without altering a stance, request, or dropping an accusation, and the representatives we win will serve our cause. We lose ourselves if we change or compromise or sell. But before, during, and after elections, we will continue to fight the financial and political system that has controlled us since 1990, and we will remain against settlement and terrorism and dependency and in favor of liberating the money and economy of the Lebanese from those controlling them. We will not bargain or exchange our positions for our seats, and we will not change anything. This is how we are and will remain. But they know that to the extent that they are annoyed by our policies in the interior, they believe in our sovereign policy in the exterior, for we are with any Lebanese against any foreigner."
He continued: "The partnership in electoral lists is not a partnership in programs. It is a process of merging voices. And if someone points me out that it is otherwise—especially since due to the preferential vote, people compete with one another within the same list. In this law, the candidate faces two battles, one against the other lists to secure the allocation and one within the list to secure the preferential votes, and this is the philosophy of this law. It has proportionality in the lists, and it has a majority in the preferential. In 2018, we made alliances that they criticized us for, and they did much worse to strike us, from the four-party alliance in 2005 and onward. Whoever among them is without an alliance (strange) should throw stones at us!"
He said: "My comrades, do not let anyone reproach you for the electoral alliances; immediately confront him with a question about his alliances. Ask the militia member about their alliance with a militia member they fought against; they fought and exiled each other and they ally. Ask the beikson of the beik about their alliance with the sheikh son of the sheikh in the name of revolution and change. Ask the son of the red revolution about their alliance with the son of the colorful revolution. Ask the son of corruption about their alliance with the son of the false revolution. Honestly, alliances ensure quotas, and everyone in preferential vote elects their deputies; their people elect their deputies, and our people elect ours. Yes, there is one train, but each one has their own carriage, and on the way, everyone has their window and their view, and when we arrive at the station, everyone goes their own way."
He added: "We are not part of any majority. We are different from one another and not convinced by each other’s behavior, and we hold each other responsible for the obstruction and collapse, but beware, the difference does not lead to division and war. This is the price of preserving the unity of the nation. You ask us how many times do we try? Jesus says forgiveness is 70 times 7. We fight, we negotiate, we continue trying, but we do not dissolve the social contract between us for the sake of rights or for the sake of combating corruption. Each time we try anew despite disappointments because our choice is to coexist. We make alliances in the elections to bolster our stance, from our position we try to convince them of our reformist project without retracting from it. We ally, we agree, but we remain masters of our decision and the owners of our distinctive identity."
He continued: "My comrades and allies in the Free Patriotic Movement, at every opportunity and particularly in this election, we say to each one who wants to get rid of us: 'We will stay here!' In 1988 we remained here even if they bombarded us, in 1990 we remained here even if they exiled us; in 2005 we remained here even if they isolated us. In 2019 we remained here even if they tried to fail us. In 2022 we will remain here even if they besiege us. We will remain here as long as Lebanon is here."
He said: "My loved ones, my comrades, I'm sure you hear me for a minute with Gebran. Give me a minute to tell you with whom we will stay here:
1 - With freedom, sovereignty, and independence; we will stay here.
2 - With developing the system and the civil state and extensive decentralization.
3 - With the defensive strategy and preserving Lebanon's strength and the centralized decision of the state.
4 - With balanced national partnership and true representation.
With the strong president and his powers and the strong mandate; we will stay here.
5 - With forensic auditing of the central bank and of the whole state, we will stay.
6 - With capital control, recovery of funds, account disclosures, and properties; we were and will remain.
With financial recovery, restructuring the banking sector and the state's finances.
With the sovereign fund and the investment of state properties.
7 - With a productive economy, food industry, smart agriculture, environmental tourism, and knowledge economy.
8 - With the rights of expatriates in elections and representation and nationality; we were and will remain.
With "Lebanon, whose borders are the world," we will stay.
9 - With Lebanon, an Eastern Arab that is open and with an economic Eastern policy.
10 - With keeping Lebanon neutral, preventing settlement, and the return of the displaced; we will stay.
11 - With electricity without deficit, theft, or waste.
With dams that preserve Lebanon’s water.
With our oil and gas and our rights and borders; we will stay.
With a clean environment, no waste, no dug-up mountains, and no polluted sea.
With modern and cheap communications.
12 - With national understandings and against deals; we will stay.
With the genuine revolution and at its heart, we will stay.
What they did not allow us means they did not allow you, and their hindrances to us mean hindrance to you. The road, the electricity, the water, the gas, and the money do not belong to us alone, but to you."
Bassil concluded: "Vote for Lebanon, vote for the movement; we have been and will continue to fight for you and for your future. On January 2 last, I told you, and today I repeat: meet us at the elections, you and your embassies. We are isolated except for our dignity and the people standing with us. Vote with us, and we will remain for a strong Lebanon, we will remain a free national movement. No matter what the world says, we will stay here."
### The Candidates
The list of candidates includes:
- Akkar: Asaad Dergham and Jimmy Jabbour
- Koura: George Atallah
- Zgharta: Pierre Raffoul
- Jbeil: Simon Abi Ramia
- Batroun: Gebran Bassil
- Kesrouan: Nada Boustani
- Metn: Eddie Malouf, Elias Bou Saab, Ibrahim Kanaan
- Baabda: Alan Aoun
- Aley: Cesar Abi Khalil
- Chouf: Ghassan Atallah
- Beirut I: Nicolas Sahnaoui
- Jezzine: Salim Khoury, Amal Abou Zeid, Ziad Aswad
- Zahle: Salim Aoun
- Beirut II: Edgard Traboulsi
- West Bekaa: Sharbel Maroun
The candidate for the Catholics in North Bekaa will be determined later.
