The head of the “Free Patriotic Movement,” Gebran Bassil, came out at a press conference with the start of the countdown to the Lebanese Parliament session, which was called for by the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, to elect a president for the republic, after the stock exchange of candidates settled on two names announcing the former minister Suleiman Franjieh, the candidate of the duo “Amal Movement” and “Hezbollah” and the former minister, Jihad Azour, who obtained a large consensus from the Christian team opposing the candidate of the opposition axis in terms of approach and political line.

As for the support of the “Aounist movement” for him, it came out of refusal to nominate Franjieh after Basil had appointed himself to succeed his uncle, former President Michel Aoun, despite his abstinence from this position during his press conference.

An observer source believes that what is prominent in Bassil’s words, who criticized the two, specifically “Hezbollah”, left the door open to any agreement on a third candidate, especially when he stressed the possibility of dialogue before, during and after today’s session, after he justified his movement’s support for Azour’s candidacy and his intersection with what he described as the opposition. Thus, he still distinguishes himself from them despite his adoption of the latter’s candidacy, with his insistence not to adopt Franjieh’s candidacy, insinuating the duo’s channel in terms of finding an alternative with whom he can agree on his presidential program.

The source adds, without a doubt, that Basil’s words about interfering in the “movement’s” internal affairs and inciting a number of officials and MPs in the movement to various options he considered “immoral,” by referring to attempts to woo some Aounist votes to vote in favor of the duo’s candidate for considerations that some consider to be linked to the electoral votes of a number of these. Representatives that rely on the Shiite vote in many circles, which prompted him to stress that voting is a duty and an obligation, even if some of them have an opinion contrary to this nomination, threatening to deviate from the unity of the current and its strength with accountability, and this speech confirms that Basil has concerns about the possibility of infiltrating his bloc, and that there is something What is brought to him during the session by the reluctance team to hold him accountable.

Basil tried to refute the reasons that prompted him to adopt Azour’s candidacy in terms of presenting a group of names, stressing that they did not initiate the nomination until the “Lebanese Forces” approved the name, stressing that he would not be within any internal or external alignment, which indicates that his exit From this crucible that gathered around Azour’s name, it is not impossible, and he is the one who considered that today’s session “is not the end of relations and understandings, but rather the beginning of a path to a solution,” and his emphasis on not volatilizing the session, so that the actual result appears on which “a future solution will be based on dialogue, not imposition.” This What Bassil actually aspires to, because he realizes that today’s session will not produce a president, and therefore he tried to present himself as “the boy’s mother” in this battle that will not end tomorrow, but will be the beginning of a new path with other names that are still behind the scenes.