ASIA/LEBANON - Presidential elections, the Maronite Bishops support the "compromise" on the name of Franjieh

Bkerkè (Agenzia Fides) - The "compromise" solution that is slowly being reached among opposing political forces in Lebanon sees Maronite Suleiman Franjieh emerge as a strong contender and represents "a great opportunity" to overcome the institutional deadlock which has long paralyzed the Country politically. Therefore all political forces are called upon to "agree and cooperate" in the knowledge that "the President is the cornerstone of the country, in its historical and institutional dimensions". With these words the Maronite Bishops, during their monthly meeting yesterday at the patriarchal seat in Bkerke, under the presidency of Patriarch Boutros Bechara Rai, clearly expressed in the communique issued at the end of the assembly their unanimous support to the hypothesis which prefigures the election of President Suleiman Franjieh, a childhood friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the leader of the Marada Movement Party (born in 1991, when the Marada Brigade paramilitary decided to become a political subject).
Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when Michel Suleiman’s term in office ended without the election of a successor because of disputes between the main political forces. The presidential vacancy of the past 18 months caused by factional divisions has paralysed both the National Assembly and government.
The emergence of the candidacy of Franjieh may represent a compromise between the two blocs - the "March 8 Coalition" and the "March 14 Coalition" - that dominate the Lebanese political scene. Parliamentarians will be invited to express their vote by Christmas.
In their meeting yesterday, the Maronite Bishops also addressed other national and international issues, expressing strong concern about the resumption of attacks and bombings in Lebanon, such as the terrorist massacre in Bourj el-Barajneh, south of the Shiite neighborhood in Beirut. "The violence which is spreading in Lebanon and around the world", wrote the Bishops in their statement, sent to Agenzia Fides "reflects, says Pope Francis, a sort of widespread World War. (...). In this context, Lebanon regains all its sense of "Country-message", and the Lebanese regain their responsibility in spreading this message and in the consolidation of this model".
It was Pope John Paul II who wrote that "Lebanon is more than a Country: it is a message of freedom and an example of pluralism for the East as in the West". He wrote it in his letter on 7 September 1989, in which he begged the return to peaceful coexistence between different religious, ethnic and political identities, in the Lebanese nation at that time still tragically devastated by civil war. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 05/12/2015)

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