The leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM, Aounist), Gebran Bassil, during his party's annual dinner at the Habtoor Hotel, near Beirut, on March 14, 2025. (Credit: Tayyar.org/Facebook)
BEIRUT — Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Gebran Bassil confirmed on Friday that his party has indeed moved to the position of opposition after being ousted from the government formed by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in February.
"Today, we are not only the Free Patriotic Movement, we are the free patriotic opposition," Bassil said during his party's annual dinner at the Habtoor Hotel near the capital. "We are not part of the opposition, we are the opposition. We are the Lebanese opposition."
According to Bassil, FPM has always been "an opposition to the Syrian and Israeli occupation of Lebanon ... as well as an opposition to the breach of sovereignty."
"We have never been part of the system," Bassil claimed. "We communicate with it, of course, to pass projects within the government and laws in Parliament, but we cannot be part of it."
"FPM's opposition will be different because it comes after 14 years within power," Bassil said. "We fought for electricity, they prevented us from working and blamed us for it. This time, they will bear the responsibility for this issue."
FPM and ministers close to it have run the Ministry of Energy since 2008, and were not capable of restoring power to the country for more than a few hours a day.
'True and false' March 14
Bassil also criticized Friday's commemoration of the mass demonstrations on March 14, 2005, which followed the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and led to the end of the Syrian armed presence in Lebanon.
"The FPM represents the true March 14, 1989, of freedom, sovereignty, and independence, the others represent a false March 14," he declared, referring to the War of Liberation against the Syrian army, in 1989 during the Civil War, led by FPM founder and then-army commander Michel Aoun.
On Friday, most so-called "sovereignist" parties marked the 20 year anniversary of March 14, 2005, the day a massive rally filled the streets of Beirut in protest against the Syrian occupation, which led to the withdrawal of Hafez al-Assad's regime troops a few weeks later.
"Our leader comes from the army and not from militias," Bassil stated. "The whole world opposed him until his removal from power in 1990, when Syrian and Israeli planes flew over the Baabda palace and Saudi and American decisions were imposed on the Parliament, while the Lebanese decision was in exile," he said, referencing Aoun's time exiled in France.
Bassil spoke of the October Revolution that saw streets filled with protestors once against in 2019, in public outcry against widespread corruption in Lebanese parliament, claiming people "encircled" his father-in-law, Michel Aoun, president at the time, and "only targeted the FPM." Bassil and Aoun were called out during the protests for their allegedly corrupt practices as Lebanese outraged by years of negligence and mismanagement demanded an overhaul of the government
Regarding the 2025 election of President Joseph Aoun and subsequent appointment of Salam, Bassil accused foreign countries of "issuing decisions from abroad," saying "everyone complied, except us."
Bassil also announced the launch of a fundraising campaign for the spring 2026 legislative elections, "so that the FPM's decision can remain free."