January 2022

Alan Sarkis

The head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Representative Gibran Bassil, is trying to exert maximum tension before the parliamentary elections, which indicate an inevitable decline of his movement in the Christian street.

Bassil did not discover a more profitable title than the attack on Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the “Amal” movement in a new attempt to float himself as a Christian. On the other hand, Bassil is trying to continue his soft skirmishes with “Hezbollah”, perhaps also giving it new gains, but all that war did not reach the point of declaring a boycott.

There is no doubt that “Hezbollah” continues its disruptive actions, as it has disrupted the cabinet meetings in order to find the judicial investigator in the Beirut port explosion, Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, and it governs Lebanon according to its regional interests. Saudi Arabia is nothing but a blow to the interests of the Lebanese and taken hostage by the Iranian axis.

But neither isolating Lebanon at the Arab and international levels, nor striking the foundations of the state, nor abandoning weapons and mortgaging them with Iran’s interests, is the reason for Bassil’s uprising once morest “Hezbollah” and “Amal.” Rather, the “Shiite duo” did not support Basil in his battle to overthrow the right of expatriates to vote for 128 deputies. It prompted him to criticize the “party” and to show shining anger.

Since he did not want to anger Hezbollah, Bassil aimed at Berri in an attempt to achieve gains, but the people did not take the battle seriously and considered it a charade.

In 2009, the Free Patriotic Movement fought a fierce battle once morest Berri in Jezzine. The alarm sounded, announced a general mobilization, and fought a battle to restore the rights of Christians once morest the trio of Berri, Hariri and Jumblatt. The great shock was the election of the “Change and Reform” bloc headed by General Michel Aoun Berri as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

As for the biggest confrontation, it was from the town of Muhamrash, Batrouniya, where Basil unleashed his attack on Berri, describing him as a “thug” and using violent words once morest him. Aoun to apologize to President Berri.

After this battle between Bassil and Berri, the great shock was that Basil’s bloc elected Berri, the “thug”, in his view, as Speaker of Parliament.

The great irony is that Bassil launches his attack on the “forces”, considering that they and “Amal” formed the “Taiyouneh duo”, while the “forces” did not elect Berri to head the parliament, while he and his bloc elected him twice in 2009 and 2018.

In his continuous attack on Berri, Basil applies the story of the girl who cries on her wedding day because she does not want to leave her family, so her father offers her to stay at home and not get married. He elects him as chairman of the council, attacks him, and then divides appointments with him.

No matter how loud Bassil’s voice once morest Berri or the March 8 parties is, “Hezbollah” remains the tempo regulator. The price, of course.