The head of the "Strong Lebanon" bloc, MP Gebran Bassil, affirmed that no team is capable of bringing in a president or succeeding if they reach the presidency with a low percentage of votes. He stated that the last session established that those who claimed to have a candidate with 65 votes were mistaken. "Even if we obtained 65 votes, would we declare him president? Of course not, knowing that many have not made up their minds this time because they did not consider the session conclusive."
In an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, he noted that the nature of representation and the battle between President Michel Aoun and Minister Sleiman Frangieh should not be compared. The theme of President Aoun's battle was to restore balance, while the theme of supporting the other candidate today is to break that balance. He indicated that he is betting on Hezbollah's rationality, emphasizing that the issue is one of existence "for everything we have fought for since 2005, thus we are compelled to exercise the same opposition we practiced for General Aoun to arrive, but this time to avoid going backwards."
Bassil revealed that Hezbollah's Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said that "the understanding with us does not include the presidency, so why should they be upset if we vote for another candidate? I do not believe that what we built over 17 years can be erased in a month." He continued, "Imagine if we accepted the plan some proposed to win the Shiite seat in Jbeil and attempt to impose him as Speaker of Parliament. I do not accept this, but the duo today is doing this by imposing a president represented by one deputy on Christians."
He stated, "I know we have lost our popularity, and this is a reality, because we achieved many things and performed our duties, and we will not allow the return of destructive options for Christians," but this does not mean dissolving and being subjected to internal options that have led to the state’s fragmentation. "If we become the ones who are treasonous, I don’t know who will remain... We are in agreement, not obedient... and perhaps they prefer someone like Frangieh in this context."
The head of the Free Patriotic Movement questioned how a caretaker government could amend the constitution to elect the army commander. He added that if an international agreement is given in to by some, he will not allow the Free Patriotic Movement to be part of a presidential project doomed to failure. Regarding the Qatari initiative, he mentioned they are asking for a solution, and the name Joseph Aoun is one of the proposed names "but I don’t see that he fits the reform project."
