Today, Sunday, the head of the "Free Patriotic Movement," MP Gebran Bassil, called for "a genuine and unconventional dialogue outside the round table, with a head and subordinates taking the form of consultations and discussions," emphasizing the need to abandon the logic of imposition and "hold open electoral sessions where we either establish our agreement on a name or commit to democratic competition."
In a ceremony marking the launch of the new term for the leadership of the movement (2023-2027), he stated: “If the West wants to impose a president, it should provide a commitment to a clear and pre-established mechanism for the return of refugees to their country.” He added, "Neither the resistance team can impose a president of the republic who does not represent us or our sentiments and people, nor can the opposition impose a president on the resistance team that challenges him. From here, the logic of dialogue and understanding comes if we want to emerge from the vacuum and collapse. Presidential priorities are a rescue map. Let us talk and commit to what we agree on to elect a reformist president with reformist specifications based on an agreed reform program. A president with experience and behavior who has a project to modernize the state and carries a national vision. A president who genuinely understands decentralization as a developmental need and developmental justice as part of the solution, where integral solutions mean a strong central state with an administrative and financial decentralized system, and who truly understands the credit fund as a way out of the collapse, and that state assets are not for sale but must be preserved."
He added, “The central system has turned Lebanon into areas of influence for politicians. We have experienced the false centralization that weakened the state, divided the people, and put the Lebanese against each other. This system has invaded the system of provocation. Administrative decentralization is developmental justice, and the complete solution is a strong central state with a central financial system.”
Bassil saw that "the credit fund secures state facilities to manage them well and increase their revenues. Without this reform step, reviving large projects like Qlayaat Airport, electricity, and water would not be possible."
He warned of the dangers of displacement and asylum, asserting, "We cannot maintain our homeland if our entire population emigrates and is replaced by other peoples, even if they are neighbors and brothers. Therefore, we have labeled the issue of displacement and asylum as an existential threat that we must face with severity and a decisive rejection, no matter the cost."
Bassil spoke about "establishing national partnership, a balance partnership among components, a construction partnership, and not a quota-based one," recalling his rejection of "all temptations" regarding the presidency. He said, "We must confront the failure of reform by imposing reform and fiercely opposing corruption, as we did regarding the Governor of the Central Bank, Riad Salame, and forensic audit. The struggle for reform does not stop at a limit, and the movement has achieved the most important accomplishment in the Lebanese republic: accountability and the end of the era of impunity, leading to actual punishment."
He called for "neutralizing our country from conflicts and ideologies that are not related to it," questioning "Lebanon's position in the open international competition between two strategic projects: the Silk Road led by China from Asia towards the Mediterranean and Europe, and the Green Corridor led by the United States from India to the Gulf, the Mediterranean, and ultimately Europe. Do we remain on the margins outside the two projects, or do we establish our role through an open economic eastern approach, cooperating with both paths?"
