Bassil: FPM rejects any infringement on powers of both the President and the PM

In a speech marking the anniversary of October 13, Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Gebran Bassil said the date represented “a beginning, not an end,” describing it as the birth of the movement.

Bassil outlined the movement’s main principles, emphasizing Lebanon’s neutrality from regional conflicts and the exclusive role of the Lebanese Army in protecting the nation’s people, land, borders, and resources. He reaffirmed opposition to any project that threatens Lebanon’s unity or seeks to divide it.

“The struggle to preserve Lebanon’s entity is not over,” he said. “We want a homeland that protects and embraces.”

Bassil called for broad administrative decentralization, a trust fund, financial and economic reforms, and the recovery of stolen deposits, stressing the need to fight corruption.

On regional ties, he said Lebanon must build “relations of good neighborliness with Syria based on equality, mutual respect, and common interests, without giving up freedom, sovereignty, and independence.”

Paying tribute to Lebanon’s fallen figures, Bassil said, “Lebanon’s martyrs are all those who died for the country and the cause they believed in,” listing names from across the political spectrum, including Kamal Jumblatt, Tony Frangieh, Bashir Gemayel, Rashid Karami, René Moawad, Hassan Nasrallah, and Rafic Hariri, among others.

He also reaffirmed that the FPM rejects any infringement on the powers of both the president and the prime minister. 

“The prime minister is our prime minister, not a Zionist. He’s Lebanese, just as our president is Lebanese, even if we disagree with both,” Bassil said.

Addressing Lebanese expatriates, Bassil called them “an extension of the homeland to the world,” urging them to maintain political representation through an expatriate parliamentary bloc. He voiced concern that authorities could undermine the voting rights of the diaspora or even cancel the upcoming elections entirely.

On the question of disarming groups, Bassil warned against relinquishing weapons “for nothing,” saying, “Bring neutrality, international guarantees, reconstruction, prosperity, and a strategic defense agreement with the United States, at least secure the return of displaced people and refugees.”