Guarantor of good politics is the election of a president, says Patriarch Rai

Lebanon’s top Christian spiritual leader Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Al-Rai, stressed during his Sunday’s mass that ” governing is a service and it cannot be authoritarian, just as officials are servants of people for the common good. A true politician is a servant, and when he is not like that, he is a bad politician, rather he is not a politician, because politics is an honorable art to serve the common good.”

He added : “We are preparing with the Christian deputies for a spiritual retreat to listen together to God’s words and dedicate the rest to prayer and contemplation, and we will pray together for Lebanon and its salvation from its political, social and economic crises.”

He also pointed out that “the politician is called to destroy in himself the sin of corruption, private interests, selfishness, illegitimate gains, and encroachment on public money, and must be committed to serving love, justice, and the welfare of citizens.”

He continued, “Let the politicians, led by the nation’s deputies, know that the guarantor of good politics is the election of a president to manage and organize the constitutional institutions

Lebanon entered 2023 without a president or a fully empowered Cabinet, stalling any progress on the financial reforms needed to bring the country out of an unprecedented economic meltdown.

Former president Michel Aoun left office on Oct. 30, and since then, the country’s parliamentarians, divided along sectarian lines, have failed 11 times to elect Aoun’s successor.

 After 80 years of Independence from France , the former Colonial power is still actively involved in picking Lebanon’s leaders

Marada Movement, leader Suleiman Franjieh, is currently visiting France and has been meeting French government officials.

Franjieh , the presidential candidate of the Iranian backed Hezbollah militant group is reportedly being quizzed by the French and was asked to provide certain guarantees before endorsing him .

One of the guarantees Franjieh offered was that that he would not block the work of the reformist government, in rescuing the country from its economic crisis “

But Hezbollah reportedly objected to that because the party is opposed to any IMF involvement .

This according to observers indicates that Franjieh will not be his own man and any guarantee he will offer is worthless , since the last decision will be Hezbollah’s

His trip comes few days after Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt headed to Paris to meet with French president Emanuel Macron

Jumblatt’s trip to Paris is aimed at agreeing on a unifying candidate to end the presidential crisis,

The problem for Franjieh is twofold: Until now he doesn’t have a majority in parliament that would allow him to win an election, and he is opposed by the three main Maronite Christian parties, which would deny him any communal legitimacy, since presidents come from the Maronite community. 

According to political observers, even in the unlikely chance that he could be voted into office, his term would be highly contentious because of hostility from within his community.

One observer told Ya Libnan :” Maybe the French asked him to come to Paris to tell him that they tried their best but that was not good enough . Franjieh will then be able to come back to Lebanon and declare that he is not in the running. After all he never officially announced his candidacy, precisely to avoid the humiliation of being forced to backtrack on this front.