The political commission of the Free Patriotic Movement held its periodic meeting under the chairmanship of the MP Gebran Bassil. It discussed its agenda and released the statement below: 1- The Free Patriotic Movement considers that the presidential election is an absolute constitutional and national priority, which requires that all necessary efforts be made to elect a president who embodies an integrated reform and rescue project, as stated in the presidential priorities paper presented by the movement, and which implementation be ensured by a reformist government that cooperates with a parliament itself committed to approving the corrective laws needed; Anything less than that, the election would be just a formal event, albeit necessary, without it constituting an end to the collapse or a revival of the nation. 2- The Free Patriotic Movement calls for dealing with the presidential election as a Lebanese sovereign matter, in which the outside world, be it east or west, does not meddle except in the interest of Lebanon and to help the Lebanese to agree among themselves, and not for its interests and imposing them on the Lebanese. Therefore, the time has come to dialogue and agree among us, Lebanese, without waiting for others, and without accepting that someone from the outside or the inside imposes his decision on us. In all cases, we as a party will not go against our convictions that we have paid for, and shall continue to do so, dearly. 3- The party considers that the heart of the crisis lies in the process of the systematic destruction of the state (which has increased in the last three years), and which it is not possible to get out of except through a process of a systematic building of the state, on the basis of the equitable consensus partnership. The crisis, in its essence, is beyond the election of a president, and framing it this way is ridiculing it. It is the crisis of the existence of a strong state, and the crisis of a renewed strike against the consensus partnership and national balance. Building the state happens through actions, undertaking reform measures and adopting reform laws such as those advanced by the Free Patriotic Movement. And protecting the national partnership takes place by respecting the entities’ will in their participatory role, and in their actual representation in constitutional institutions and in their presidency. Less than that would be the destruction of the Lebanese nation and entity, which the party will fight to prevent.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon