The Head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) MP Gebran Bassil is suffering from many burdens, first of which the US sanctions imposed on him and on people close to him, including businessmen who are being observed by the US Administration and under the close supervision of the US Treasury, therefore, any inadequate step exposes them to sanctions.
Bassil has no longer space to move, as he is captive of those sanctions, especially the electoral money, which Bassil considers the most powerful weapon against his opponents in the upcoming Parliamentary elections. He had nothing left but Hezbollah’s weapons to hide behind it and to benefit from in his electoral battles. However, this step has bad consequences and repercussions that will not help Bassil win.
In this context, dissidents from the Free Patriotic Movement consider it unfortunate for them the situation that Bassil and the FPM has reached especially that they struggled for this party, thinking that the policy pursued would lead the country to safety.
The dissidents told Sawt Beirut International (SBI) that Bassil stands confused and idly in front of the parliamentary elections. He has only one chance to keep his parliamentary bloc at the size it has reached. All the statistics carried out by the movement indicate a significant decline in most regions, and there is no progress in the movement’s popularity, and this matter greatly troubles Bassil, because the only redemption for him is to barter with the Shiite duo in the file of the port explosion and accept the overthrow of Judge Bitar in exchange for obtaining Hezbollah’s support in the areas under the party’s influence.
The dissidents say, “The barter is not an easy thing, as it has dire repercussions on the movement. Gaining Shiite votes will lead to losing the votes of Christians, especially those who belong to the movement, because they are against any bargaining with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, and therefore the movement will lose very much if its goes ahead with the barter.”
The dissidents assert that Bassil’s speech towards Hezbollah is nothing but a maneuver and an open movie, as he signed the Mar Mikhael understanding concluded by President Michel Aoun, and he cannot go against this agreement, because by signing the agreement, the movement gave a Christian cover to Hezbollah in exchange for getting over positions, the presidency, and appointments to state institutions, and any separation from the “party” means the loss of these gains.
The dissidents believe that FPM will lose some parliamentary seats in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and its popularity will decline in the Christian street in return for the advance of the Lebanese Forces party, or at least the FPM and the Lebanese Forces will be equal in the size of the seats, and this for Bassil is much worse than losing the presidency. This is because Basil’s sole obsession is to weaken the Forces by any means possible, and he has repeatedly requested the intervention of the President of the Republic during the formation of previous governments in order forbidden the forces from ministerial seats so that they cannot provide aid to the Christian street and limit these aids to the FPM.