Free Patriotic Movement Chief, MP Gebran Bassil, stressed, in his speech during today’s parliament session devoted to discussing President Michel Aoun’s letter, that “his priority is to urge Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to form the government, and not to withdraw his designation, since the goal is to accelerate the formation of a government to implement reforms.”
“We cannot set up a complete reform program if there is no government, and more correctly, there is no political, economic or social stability in the country if we do not form a government,” he maintained.
“The goal is to urge Hariri to form the government and nothing else,” Bassil stressed, explaining that “the issue is not sectarian and no one can take it in this direction, but it can be placed within the framework of the Constitutional Charter.”
He added: “The crisis can be a crisis of a system and a constitution, and this matter cannot be solved by Hariri alone or by the President of the Republic, or by any parliamentary bloc alone…The crisis needs the parliament to meet in a general assembly, pursuant to a letter from the President of the Republic, so that something can be done.”
Bassil indicated that the government formation has a certain methodology and is subject to the charter, adding that no one can exclude a certain sect from this process, nor can any sect monopolize the formation of the government. “The mere fact that the President of the Republic signs the designation decree entails that any detail of the cabinet formation is subject to his approval,” he stressed.
Bassil continued to state that “we cannot be accused of aiming for a third veto power in a government of specialists, as we have indicated that we do not want it, and so has the President of the Republic underlined since the very beginning.”
“We will support the government with every reform step and do not obstruct its formation, as it is in our interest to form a productive cabinet,” the MP asserted.
“Our constitution does not set deadlines, and this is a problem. The constitution must be developed in this regard in order to be safeguarded, and we, as blocs, have proposed a balanced and logical constitutional amendment,” concluded Bassil.
Source: National News Agency Lebanon