Aoun: Corruptors Won’t Return to Power, Government to Be Formed Based on New Majority’s Policies

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that the constitution does not grant the president a certain stake in the distribution of government portfolios.

He said after the movement’s weekly meeting: “When the president takes sides in a dispute, then he no longer retains the characteristics of the president as stipulated in the constitution.”

He added that he is given portfolios as a “consolation prize so that he will not be granted certain privileges.”

“We are ready to present a draft law to give him privileges that would allow him to monitor the constitutional work of the government and ministers,” he said,

Addressing the developments that led to Hizbullah’s takeover of Beirut on May 7, 2008, the MP said: “On May 7, the government turned against its ministerial statement through uncovering the Resistance’s telecommunications network on May 5.”

“Hizbullah’s reaction was a retaliation against an attack on the party’s security,” Aoun continued.

Wikileaks revealed that the government decision on May 5, 2008 to dismantle Hizbullah’s network was devised with one of the foreign embassies, he added.

Addressing the shift in majority in the March 8 camp’s favor, he said that Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat began altering his positions since 2009 and the camp’s work has been completely constitutional.

Regarding the government formation process, he said that the new Cabinet will be formed based on the new majority’s policies and “let no one think that there will be another policy.”

“They refuse to admit that a new majority has been formed,” he stressed.

Addressing the West’s calls for democracy and freedom, Aoun said: “We were born free and we are still free. All we do is suffer from their freedom because they only support the corrupt people in Lebanon.”

“Corruptors never return to power. Don’t threaten us with street action and it’s in the citizens’ interest not to take to the street so that they don’t defend those who robbed them,” he added.

The MP also denied reports that he had recently held a meeting with House Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.