Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Beirut (Agenzia Fides) – Rumors are circulating in Lebanon about an upcoming meeting between General Michel Aoun and former Falangist Samir Geagea, the leaders of the two main Christian political forces - the Free Patriotic Movement (MPL) and the Lebanese Forces - which with their vetoes have not allowed the election of a new president at the helm of the nation for months. The meeting, scheduled already for the next few days, according to observers should trigger a process of rapprochement of all the Lebanese political forces of Christian origin and help overcome the institutional impasse that for more than seven months has paralyzed the political life of the Country. As reported by the Lebanese newspaper Daily Star, the two historic rivals should confront each other on a work plan agreed upon that favors the rapid election of a new president - reserved by law to a Maronite Christian - and the subsequent approval of an electoral law that ensures adequate parliamentary representation to the Christian component of the Lebanese population. The meeting between Aoun and Geagea should be only the first step of a road map aimed at promoting a rapprochement of all political groups of Christian origin, with the involvement of other forces such as the Kataeb party and the Marada movement. The project, anticipated by the journalistic indiscretions, aims at protecting the participation of Christians in the management of central and local public institutions. The recomposition of the political Lebanese context - emphasize local sources - was favored by the individual meetings that Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai had in recent weeks with several Christian political leaders, and also by the wake of direct contacts between Sunnis of the "future" Party and the Shia of Hezbollah. "Patriarch Rai" says Mgr. Francois Eid, Maronite Patriarchal Procurator before the Holy See "has worked tirelessly to push everyone to overcome the conflicts involved that are leading the Country to ruin. It is absolutely necessary that Christian politicians stop their conflicts and help choose a president, a figure that has to work for the good of all the Lebanese people". (GV) (Agenzia Fides 30/12/2014)
