NNA – Free Patriotic Movement leader, Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister, Gebran Bassil, confirmed on Tuesday his political party’s utter refusal of any scenario leading to the extension of the House of Parliament’s mandate, pledging to face such possibility by all the available means.
“A parliamentary extension is an outright aggression against democracy and the Lebanese people,” Bassil said in the wake of the Change and Reform Parliamentary bloc’s weekly meeting.
“All the political forces are called forth to fight extension. The sole right option is endorsing a new election law,” he added, calling on Hezbollah and the Future Movement to avoid endorsing any likely extension of the Parliament’s mandate.
Bassil denied any void problem at the House of Parliament, and confirmed the existence of hundreds of means to avoid parliamentary vacuum.
“We will not be part of a deal that messes with the country’s founding pillars,” Bassil said, pointing to the countless election law proposals that have failed to gain everybody’s approval thus far.
“We promise the Lebanese to reach an election law, just the way we promised them to elect a president. We will confront parliament extension by boycotting sessions, as well as through the street and the cabinet. We have to be up to our duties and responsibilities,” he added.
“When we give up on our principles and approve of extension, then we will only be losing ourselves. Based on this, our hand is extended to all,” Bassil concluded.
