Franjieh Meets Gemayel: Marada MPs Will Attend Legislative Session

Head of the Marada Movement MP Suleiman Franjieh stressed on Tuesday the importance of approving a number of financial draft-laws during the upcoming legislative session, saying that he understands the position of the Kataeb Party regarding boycotting the meeting.

He said after holding talks with Kataeb chief MP Sami Gemayel: “We will attend the session because there are pressing financial issues that we need to address.”

He added that the Kataeb's boycott of the legislative session is a “matter of principle.”

“I support any initiative aimed at resolving the dispute over the meeting,” Franjieh continued from Bikfaya.

“We support efforts that will revitalize state institutions,” he added.

“We support the rights of Christians, but oppose placing a draft-law that does not enjoy consensus on the session's agenda. There are pressing financial issues that need to be resolved.,” he declared.

The Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement are leaning towards boycotting the session over the failure to include the parliamentary electoral law on its agenda.

“I understand Gemayel's position on the legislative session, but I believe creating disputes over the failure to add a draft-law on the legislative session are not worth it, ” Franjieh said.

“I have always followed my convictions,” he stated in response to a question on the discrepancy between the Marada movement stance and other Christian parties on the legislative session.

For his part, Gemayel reiterated the stand of the Kataeb on the session, underlining the need to elect a new president.

“We hope to reach, through cooperation, an initiative that would end the deadlock over the presidency,” he remarked.

Franjieh had been exerting efforts regarding the upcoming legislative session by holding talks with numerous officials.

He had held to that end a meeting on Saturday night with Free Patriotic Movement chief Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper Tuesday.

The legislative session is scheduled for November 12 and 13 amid a boycott of the Kataeb Party over the ongoing presidential vacuum.

The Lebanese Forces and FPM are unlikely to attend either over the failure to include the parliamentary electoral law on the session's agenda.

M.T.

D.A.