Bassil looks towards municipal elections after recent win

Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Gebran Bassil expressed his satisfaction on Tuesday with the results of Sunday's elections for the Beirut engineering union, won by Fadi Hanna (FPM) thanks to an alliance forged with the Amal-Hezbollah duo. "The FPM has emerged victorious from the interminable plot to eliminate it," he declared. According to him, "the plot gained momentum in 2019 [in the wake of the October protests], particularly after the monumental failure of the experiment by lovers of revolution and change." "That has come to an end today," said Bassil, recalling that in the last elections for the union in 2021, candidates belonging to this movement won 65.6 percent of the vote, compared with just 10.5 percent on Sunday. "This is a victory won after a clear political battle with national and popular significance, which could have future repercussions," said Bassil, in a flourish directed at the Speaker of the House and leader of Amal, Nabih Berri, with whom the FPM has just resumed contact.

Will this rapprochement materialize when the terms of municipal councils are likely to be extended? The question arises at a time when the FPM is considered to be the key element in the holding of a parliamentary session that would be mainly devoted to this issue, insofar as it would provide Christian cover for the approach, as the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb refuse to take part in a legislative session during a presidential vacuum. "There is no link between the issue of municipal elections and the elections of the order of engineers," he asserted, as if to rule out the scenario of barter with Berri on this front. He also blew hot and cold over his official position: "We're going to talk to the caretaker interior minister. And if the ministry is ready to hold the ballot, the FPM [will] participate and will not extend the mandate of the municipal councils," he said, affirming, at the same time, that his party is against the vacancy at the municipal level.

While Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi on Monday set the date of May 19 for a second round of municipal elections in North Lebanon, uncertainty continues to hang over the organization of the municipal and mokhtar elections, not only because of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, but also because of the multifaceted crisis affecting the country, and the widespread presidential and institutional vacancy. Mawlawi convened the electoral colleges of North Lebanon and Akkar to elect the members of the municipal councils and to determine their number per council and for each locality. He also called for the election of mokhtars, local elected officials responsible for administrative procedures relating to civil status issues. At the beginning of April, the minister had set May 12, 2024 as the date for municipal elections in Mount Lebanon. If held, these elections would take place in four stages, eight years after the last municipal elections in May 2016. In 2022, the parliamentary elections were held, but not the municipal elections. The latter had been postponed twice due to a lack of funding, in view of the collapse of the Lebanese lira – which now trades at LL 89,500 to the dollar, compared with LL 1,500 in September 2019. In April 2023, Parliament postponed municipal elections for the second year running. To do so, it approved a law extending the term of municipal councils until May 31, 2024 at the latest.

During his press conference, the FPM leader also addressed the issue of Syrian migrants, asserting that "a decisive parliamentary position is needed, refusing to allow displaced persons to remain" in Lebanon. His comments came against a backdrop of increasing verbal and physical violence against Syrian nationals and their representatives, following the killing a week ago of an LF executive. Bassil called on each minister "to do his duty" and on municipalities to "deal with the problem of displaced persons in an irregular situation." "We have to agree on the issue of the displaced as Lebanese," he added. Lebanon is for the Lebanese and for our children after us." The previous day, he had already called for the expulsion of Syrian migrants who "violate Lebanese and international laws."

The situation in the South

Bassil also addressed the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Hezbollah and Israel have been clashing daily since Oct. 8, 2023, in the wake of the war in Gaza. "All Arab fronts are at a standstill, while the Lebanese front is inflamed," he said, warning of "the Israeli danger" and "the expansion of aggression." "The end of the war is a demand of Lebanon and the Lebanese," he declared. On Monday, he had proposed to a series of international players the idea of adopting a new UN Security Council resolution that would "support the territorial integrity" of Lebanon and call for a permanent cease-fire along the Lebanese-Israeli border. If an international decision is taken, Hezbollah must respect it," said Bassil. We are making diplomatic efforts as a party, but this is the responsibility of official Lebanon and the state, and we are counting on the wisdom of [Parliamentary Speaker Nabih) Berri."

Economic crisis

Finally, Bassil addressed the economic situation in Lebanon. "Parliament has failed to pass the reform laws and the government has not approved a plan to recover deposits," denounced the FPM leader. A forensic audit of Lebanese banks is essential to determine the destination of funds transferred abroad," he insisted. Depositors cannot bear the consequences of losses." Four and a half years since the start of the economic crisis in Lebanon, the banking system is still a long way from reaching its pre-crisis level. In a report published in mid-2023, the World Bank noted that the cash economy, then estimated at $9.86 billion in 2022, or 45.7 percent of GDP, was still booming due to the "systemic failure of the Lebanese banking sector and the collapse of the national currency."


Bassil also described the case of Optimum Invest as "extremely serious." The Lebanese financial company Optimum Invest (OI) is accused of financial malfeasance in connection with the Banque du Liban (BDL) after articles published at the end of March reported alleged suspicious transactions. Information converges on a sum of around $8 billion transferred illicitly," he revealed. We will intensify our efforts in the fight against financial corruption to restore confidence in the financial and banking system."

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour