Who is Gebran Bassil laughing at?
In principle, every politician has the right to say whatever he wants and express about whatever ideas he wants, but he has absolutely no right to belittle our intelligence and laugh at us. And this is exactly what Gebran Bassil did to us in his speech yesterday. The leader of the Free Patriotic Movement spared no effort to say with confidence and pride about the dependence of others and the freedom of his decision. But Bassil knows very well that his talk about his free decision in the elections is ridiculous. Everyone knows that the movement’s popularity has declined a lot, and that Hezbollah is the one who is in charge of managing the battle for the Aounists to get them out of the elections with the least possible losses. In the Chouf, for example, Wiam Wahhab and Talal Arslan did not want to ally with Bassil, but a call from Hassan Nasrallah to Wahab and Arslan changed the equation. In the first and third northern districts, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party was not in the process of allying with Bassil, but Hezbollah’s pressure on the nationalist made it change its decision. In Zahle, Baalbek-Hermel and Beirut II, Hezbollah included the movement’s candidates in its list, to secure their success. Moreover, information confirm that Hezbollah made Nabih Berri change his stance towards Bassil and his movement, and that Berri will support the movement’s candidates wherever possible. Nasrallah’s personal intervention with Suleiman Franjieh is what made the latter accept to meet Bassil at an iftar, they were called at, by the Secretary-General of Hezbollah. What freedom of decision is Basil talking about, then? It is mortgaged and pledged to Hezbollah, and the Orange Stream will be an “inflated” force from the Yellow Party, making it the Christian version of the Iranian decision in Lebanon. Therefore, Lebanese, your country needs you, and the electoral duty is calling you. Participated massively in the elections, as “your votes are our legitimate weapon, so we can “extract” them , and prevail.”