Beirut: Although he reiterated his adherence to the March 14 coalition, Samir Geagea distanced himself from the alliance that designated him as its presidential candidate in early 2014, after he saw the proverbial rug pulled from under his feet. Moreover, and in a forceful and unequivocal call, the leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF) challenged Hezbollah to show its mettle, end its boycott of parliamentary convocations, and help elect his Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) rival General Michel Aoun president of the republic.
Appearing on MTV’s highly-rated “Bi-Mawdu‘iyyah” [Objectively] programme, which coincidentally announced that Geagea won the 2015 Personality public opinion poll with 39.3% of votes cast, the LF leader reiterated that his endorsement of Aoun did not mean an intention to leave the March 14 coalition. “We were in March 14, we will remain in March 14 and we will not leave March 14, because it reflects our political beliefs,” he hammered, and continued: “I was jailed over these principles and I will not change them for anyone.” Yet, while Geagea insisted on March 14’s “project”, his choice of words in Arabic highlighted an existential dilemma.
Although the alliance retained some value, he reiterated time and again, the “project” apparently was no longer what Geagea required for Lebanon.
He elaborated that the Aoun nomination was not a “childish reaction to Hariri’s murky support for Sulaiman Franjieh, the Marada Movement leader.
“Given a choice between Aoun and Franjieh, we will choose Aoun,” he added, because Franjieh is “a genuine March 8, while the general is a fake March 8.”
This was probably the second most explosive statement he made since he intended to enlarge the gulf between Aoun and its nominal March 8 backers while simultaneously recording his displeasure with former Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri.
Of course, the more meaningful assertion was his ability to secure from the FPM a 10-point commitment that placed the state at the heart of his “project” that, and this must be repeated often, denied Hezbollah the right to bear arms and/or engage in foreign adventures.
In fact, and while Geagea acknowledged that he was not pleased with Hariri’s decision to back Franjieh for the presidency, what was interesting in his replies was the refusal to recognise that his support for Aoun essentially undermined the Marada Movement leader’s chances.
The interviewer reminded him that was the case since Geagea called on his March 14 to rally behind Aoun’s bid that, again, Geagea dismissed as a tangential concern.
The LF leader rejected any insinuations that his latest maneuver was a revolt against the Future Movement and specifically against Hariri because the latter allegedly nominated Franjieh while he, Geagea, was still the March 14 nominal contender.
Time and again, he clarified that his strategic calculations were prompted by dire conditions on the ground, which he described as becoming “unbearable, especially after the garbage crisis.”
Be that as it may, and although Lebanese parliamentarians failed to elect a successor to President Michel Sulaiman after the out-going head-of-state completed his six-years-term in May 2014, Geagea placed the blame squarely on Hezbollah’s lap.
“Hezbollah has been saying that it is supporting General Aoun to the end,” said Geagea, before he continued: “We have now reached the end and it [Hezbollah] must prove this.”
Nothing prevented Aoun from being elected in parliament with a clear majority of the votes, he claimed, especially since the leader of the FPM was the official March 8 coalition’s presidential candidate.
In a light moment that intended to silence critics, Geagea engaged in a simple calculation, saying that with the LF’s eight votes and the March 8 bloc’s 57 [a figure that included those of the Amal Movement that may now pose a real problem on account of Speaker Nabih Berri’s reticence], Aoun would be elected with a majority of 65 votes, more than half of Parliament’s 128 members.
Geagea claimed the number would be higher if independents joined in and he strongly rejected attempts to link the presidential vote to any package deal, including a new electoral law as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others requested on numerous occasions.
In the event, Geagea was in a relatively strong position, having literally stripped his nemesis, Druze leader Walid Junblatt, from any king-making abilities. Neither Junblatt or Hariri have yet reacted to the Geagea-Aoun alliance.
