Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil on Dec. 6, 2022. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Gebran Bassil, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), said in a press conference on Tuesday that Monday's cabinet meeting was "unconstitutional, illegal and unconventional," threatening that his party could deviate from its ally Hezbollah's blank vote strategy during presidential electoral sessions in Parliament.
Najib Mikati's caretaker cabinet met on Monday at the Grand Serail in Beirut, despite the boycott of several ministers close to the FPM, the party founded by former President Michel Aoun, who said that convening a caretaker cabinet amid a presidential vacuum constitutes something between an overstep and a power grab.
Mikati, following the meeting, restated his disinterest in exercising presidential prerogatives.
'Our problem is not with him, but with his enablers'
On Tuesday, Bassil said that "yesterday's cabinet session is unconstitutional, illegal and unconventional," adding that "the session is a death sentence to the constitution, a fatal blow to the Taif [agreement], and a stab at a national agreement that was announced in Parliament."
On Sunday, ministers Abdallah Bou Habib, Henri Khoury, Maurice Slim, Amine Salam, Hector Hajjar, Walid Fayad, Walid Nassar, Georges Bouchikian and Issam Charafeddine (close to the Druze leader, Talal Arslan) said in a joint statement that they were boycotting the cabinet meeting, calling it a "violation of the constitution."
Their boycott announcement led to fears that the government session would not be held due to the lack of a quorum. But the meeting went ahead after Bouchikian and Hajjar arrived at the Grand Serail on Monday morning, which allowed the cabinet to convene despite being boycotted by seven of the government’s 24 ministers.
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"There was a prior agreement on this meeting, and if this did not happen, Mikati would not have dared to invite the ministers, and our problem is not with him, but with his enablers, with the honest [people] who broke our deal." Bassil said, without naming Hezbollah or Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is also the leader of the Amal Movement. Both were in favor of the cabinet's session taking place.
Hezbollah is suspected of having pressured the recalcitrant ministers to attend. But following Monday's cabinet meeting, during which the caretaker government approved social and medical aid in Lebanon, caretaker Labor Minister Mustafa Bayram, who is close to Hezbollah, told reporters that "the agenda of this meeting was about the exceptional situation of the country. We did not pressure anyone to attend this meeting. Ali Hamieh, caretaker transport minister, who is also close to Hezbollah, also said that Hezbollah "did not contact anyone" before the meeting.
Meanwhile, an FPM official told L'Orient-Le Jour earlier on Tuesday that "if he thinks that this is a indirect way to punish us for not supporting their candidate Sleiman Frangieh [in the presidential election], he is seriously mistaken," in likely reference to Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah. "We are not going to be silenced," the official added.
The FPM's leader has stood up to Hezbollah's chief, continuing to refuse to support Frangieh’s candidacy for president. "Hezbollah’s leader developed a strategic idea that he trusts me and Sleiman Frangieh ... [but] it has been known from the beginning that I do not support Frangieh. I call for an agreement on a third candidate,” Bassil had said.
Threat to kill blank vote strategy
The FPM leader also threatened during Tuesday's press conference to halt the blank vote strategy, which is imposed by Hezbollah — pending a broader agreement on the next president — during upcoming Parliament's election sessions aimed at electing a new head of state for Lebanon.
"What happened is a big matter, and we will not attend Parliament [sessions] if we do not find a great national need that requires us to, and we will seek more and faster to get out of the blank ballot strategy and go towards a presidential candidate," Bassil said. "All means are available [to us] to object: politically, legally and popularly."
Parliament has convened eight times since September to elect Aoun's successor, without success. The next electoral session is scheduled for Thursday.
Bassil also said that "when the national and partisan partnership is broken, the partnership becomes nullified," adding that his party's role "is our weapon, and we will not give it up … no one can impose on us a choice other than our own."
During Monday's meeting, cabinet approved funding for the Lebanese Army, medicine imports, Health Ministry-insured patients’ treatment costs and road maintenance. Mikati said that holding the meeting was a matter of “responsibility,” referencing the potential harm wrought by unsettled bills on state-insured patients receiving dialysis and cancer treatments.
"Whoever cares about people's pain, let him approve the capital control and reform laws, and let him stop those who stole the people's money … and let him take care of his city, Tripoli, and the poverty and pain of its people," Bassil lashed, referring to Mikati who hails from Tripoli, Lebanon's most impoverished city.
Bassil also said, "What happened confirms that what Najib Mikati is told to do is not to form a government, and this is what we warned everyone when we refused to name him" as a prime minister-designate.