Lebanese political bloc
Strong Lebanon (Arabic: تكتل لبنان القوي) is the parliamentary bloc of the Free Patriotic Movement and their allies in the Lebanese Parliament. Headed by Gebran Bassil, it consisted of 29 deputies after the 2018 general election[1] and shrunk to 17 deputies after the 2022 Lebanese general election.[2]
Election summary
2018–2022 session deputies
Timeline
17 out of 29 MP from the bloc voted for Nabih Berri in the 2018 Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament election.
Elie Ferzli was elected as Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon.
At the beginning of the 17 October Revolution, Neemat Frem, Chamel Roukoz and Michel Moawad left the bloc.[3]
After the 2020 Beirut explosion, Michel Daher left the bloc.[4]
In April 2021, Elie Ferzli left the bloc.[5]
On 1 March 2022, MP Hikmat Dib resigned from FPM causing the bloc to shrink to 23 MP.[6]
2022–2026 session deputies
Timeline
4 out of 21 MP from the bloc voted for Nabih Berri in the 2022 Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament election.[7]
Elias Bou Saab was elected as Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon.
On 23 June 2022, Tashnaq and Yehya named Najib Mikati as prime minister unlike the rest of the bloc.[8]
On 10 September 2022, Gebran Bassil kicked out ex-MP Ziad Assouad and ex-MP Mario Aoun.[9]
On 14 September 2022, FPM boycotted the parliament session due to Bachir Gemayel assassination memorial.[10] On 13 October 2022, FPM boycotted the presidential election session due to 13 October memorial.[11]
On 10 November 2022, Hagop Pakradounian criticized his colleague in the bloc Jimmy Jabbour for participating in a memorial to the martyrs of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Akkar.[12]
On 6 December 2022, Tashnaq kicked out MP Bouchikian which shrunk the Strong Lebanon bloc to 20.[13] Elias Bou Saab was reportedly kicked out of the Free Patriotic Movement bloc in April 2024 in which FPM sources cited political disagreements since the beginning of the 2022 parliament. Disagreements mostly include choice of presidential candidates and ideological differences.[14]
In August 2024, Alain Aoun was expelled from FPM for his lack of alignments with the parliamentary bloc, like refusing to vote for Jihad Azour in the 2022–2024 Lebanese presidential election.[15] On 7 August 2024, Simon Abi Ramia resigned from the Free Patriotic Movement citing "individualism" within the party and disagreements with its leader Gebran Bassil.[16] Ibrahim Kanaan resigned from the Free Patriotic Movement on August 14, 2024 [17]
See also
References
