Political Reactions to President Berri’s Speech and the Call for Dialogue: Implications for Lebanon’s Presidential Election

2023-09-02 06:03:48
No sooner had President Nabih Berri finished delivering his speech on the forty-fifth anniversary of the occultation of Imam Musa al-Sadr when political reactions continued, whether those supporting the positions he announced, or those rejecting the internal messages he carried, especially in terms of his call for the seven-day dialogue, anticipating the arrival of French presidential envoy, Jean-Yves Le Drian, on his September visit.

The first reactions came from the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Representative Gebran Bassil, who described Berri’s speech as positive. He relied on what he said to reach the conclusion that at the end of September Lebanon will have a president.
As for the responses that came from the representatives of the “Strong Republic” bloc, they were in their entirety opposed to the call for the “seven-day dialogue”, calling on the speaker to open the doors of the parliament so that the deputies could, in open and successive sessions, elect a president. In their opinion, this process may not take more than seven days. And if there is a need for dialogue, then let it be left to the new president who is supposed to give this matter the utmost importance, given that the success of this dialogue with its sponsorship and its political and reformist contents and addresses may indicate the success of his term. The President of the Republic, whoever the nation’s deputies agree on whose name he is, will not be able to rule alone because the problems and crises that the country is suffering from require the concertment of all forces, and everyone rallying around the future president, who must be distinguished in his wisdom, his performance, and his approach to political matters. And the economic and financial complexities, and the extent to which it absorbs the magnitude of what awaits Lebanon from the repercussions of the Syrian displacement, to the volatile situation in the south and the Palestinian camps, in addition to what may result from the gas exploration works in “Block” No. 9, and the possibility of benefiting from the gas revenues in the future.
President Berri, who had previously said a while ago that he “doesn’t get rid of stalking,” returned yesterday and repeated the same thing, albeit with a different expression. He said to those whom he called “the informants, the transit group, and the luxury hotels,” “Sew without this chain, they are wrong with the address, and you do not know Nabih Berri.” and the Amal Movement.
In the opinion of neutral political circles, Speaker Berri, by calling for the seven-day dialogue as a maximum, gave a new content to this dialogue, which he did not stop calling for. But what is new in this call this time is what the Speaker of the House of Representatives attached to the implications of the presidential election, when he said, “Then we go to open and successive sessions, until God decrees a matter that was in effect, and we celebrate the election of a president for the republic.”
The same circles expect that Berri’s initiative will succeed in moving the presidential stagnation if there is no major external and internal decision to keep the presidential vacuum for a short term.
One of the advantages of Berri’s speech, according to the reading of the “Free Patriotic Movement”, is that he did not mention in his lengthy speech his candidate for the first presidency, the head of the “Marada” movement, former minister Suleiman Franjieh, although he has not stopped a day since he nominated him for this position to repeat his commitment to this option, which he later became The choice of “Hezbollah” and still is. This is what prompted Basil to meet the head of the “Amal” movement, between which bridges had been severed for a while, to the middle of the road, especially since the failure to mention Franjieh in the speech, which was expected by those near and far, relieved the head of the “national movement”, who commented on the speech while it was still ” Fresh”, and everyone preceded the field of welcoming the positive presidential positives that this word carried.
Observing political circles say that Basil would not have welcomed what was included in Speaker Berri’s speech if it contained an insistence on proceeding with Franjieh’s candidacy to the end, but the failure to mention the head of the “Marada” movement by name does not necessarily mean that the “resistance forces” have dismissed this nomination. Which means that the Speaker intended this matter, and this is what allowed Bassil to take the initiative and extend his hand, expressing his welcome to the “seven-day dialogue”, which he believes will eventually lead to the election of a President for the Republic.
Accordingly, the content of Berri’s speech will remain in the balance of political responses until the time for Le Drian to come.
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