Geagea urges boycott of legislative session, accuses Berri of blackmail

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea on Wednesday called on all MPs to boycott Thursday’s legislative session, while accusing Speaker Nabih Berri of “blackmailing the North’s MPs over the Qoleiat airport clause.”

Geagea also urged voters “who want expats to vote for the 128 seats at their places of residence abroad to pressure the MPs whom they voted for to boycott the session.”

“This is not a disruption of parliamentary life as the other camp is claiming, but quite to the contrary, it is a revival of it,” Geagea added.

"The parliament, in the way Speaker Berri is running it, has seemingly turned into his personal fiefdom, and this is unacceptable," the LF leader said.

He stressed that "before we correct the way parliament operates, the work of the state cannot function properly.”

“When the Speaker of Parliament disregards the constitution, the bylaws and the opinion of the parliamentary majority, what kind of parliament is this? This is not a real parliament," Geagea lamented.

The LF leader also accused Berri of attempting to “blackmail the North’s MPs over the Qoleiat airport clause,” reminding that “the Qoleiat airport clause was approved in the previous session and went into effect based on parliament’s bylaws.”