The head of the FPM, Gebran Bassil. Archive photo L’Orient-Le Jour.
The head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM, Aounist), MP Gebran Bassil, said Saturday that his party was going through a “decisive stage” and was “being targeted because of its positions.”
“It is only natural to be in the district of Baabda today to speak openly with the people,” Bassil said during a tour of Baabda, seven months ahead of legislative elections in this constituency where Christians and Shiites coexist. “We are going through a decisive stage, and the FPM is being targeted because of its positions,” he added.
Speaking on the debates over the disarmament of militias, including Hezbollah, Bassil noted “the handover of small shipments of weapons coming from Palestinian camps,” at a time when the authorities are pushing this issue. “We are seeing the issue of labor rights and others back on the table, raising concerns about naturalization,” he said, stressing that the FPM “stands alone in opposing this project.”
The FPM leader also said that “the situation at the border is not healthy.” He continued: “We notice that the debate over labor rights and other similar matters has returned, raising fears of naturalization.” He concluded by insisting that “only the Free Patriotic Movement opposes this project.”
For years, the Aounist party has advocated on crucial issues such as regulating the presence of Syrian migrants and advancing deep decentralization. Bassil, son-in-law of former president Michel Aoun, stressed that decentralization “allows each region to develop its own capacities, have its own funds, and thus achieve its own development.”
Nearly 200,000 Syrian refugees and migrants have returned to their country from Lebanon since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in 2025, according to the U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees earlier this month. The Lebanese authorities, who have drawn up a plan for their gradual return, estimate they are hosting more than one and a half million Syrians.
Israel continues attacks on southern Lebanon, demolishes buildings in Bint Jbeil