Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri meets on Saturday evening with PSP leader Walid Joumblatt. (Credit: Saad Hariri Press Office/Twitter/@saadhariri)
BEIRUT — Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri on Saturday met with Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt ahead of a highly-anticipated decision from the former premier on whether he and his party will run in the Parliamentary elections scheduled for May 15, 2022.
Here’s what we know:
• Hariri on Saturday evening met with Joumblatt at the former’s downtown Beirut residence, according to a terse statement by the former prime minister’s office.
• “The meeting discussed the upcoming parliamentary elections and the latest political developments and general situation,” the statement added.
• Future Movement partisans on Saturday evening circulated Beirut, especially the Tariq al-Jedideh neighborhood where many of the party’s followers live, in support of Hariri.
• Hariri on Friday presided over a meeting of his parliamentary bloc, a day after arriving in Lebanon from the United Arab Emirates after several months of absence. The Future Movement leader did not make any announcement after the meeting if he would stand in the upcoming elections.
• Media reports swirled Saturday morning that Hariri and his Future Movement were set to not run in the 2022 Parliamentary elections, with an announcement on the matter expected next week.