The political settlement between the Free Patriotic Movement and the Future Movement, which got Michel Aoun elected as President and Saad el-Hariri as Prime Minister in 2016, has officially ended.
After reports that president Aoun and members of the FPM will not be invited to the annual commemoration ceremony of Rafic Hariri’s martyrdom, many people have speculated that this is the end of the political alliance.
People’s suspicions have finally been confirmed as Saad Hariri launched a scathing attack on the FPM during his speech at the event on February 14th, even designating the president: a shadow president.
“Some people are still trying to chase [Rafik] Hariri and blame him, since 1990, for the economic crisis that Lebanon is in today,” Saad Hariri said. This is a reference to the FPM, which has taken aim before the alliance at the Hariri family and their policies.
Despite what claiming that he has mutual respect for President Michel Aoun, he said, “I’ve reached a place where I’m forced to say that I dealt with two presidents.” The second president, in this case, can be inferred as a reference to Gibran Bassil.
In calling out Gebran Bassil, he said: “I say to him ‘You wasted half of the presidential term and registered collapse in the country in your name. Congratulations.'”
This speech solidified what people have known for quite a while, which is that the political alliance formed between FPM and the Future Movement is over.
Ever since his resignation as Prime Minister on October 29, 2019, he has repeatedly criticized the performance of the current government, saying that it doesn’t represent the will of the people.
He even declared that his party will not vote the government of Hassan Diab into confidence.
In response to claims that he, like many other politicians like Samy Gemayel and Walid Jumblatt, is riding the wave, he said, “We do not intend to ride the wave of the popular outrage and separate ourselves from the political class.”
