Lara Yazbek wrote in Al Markaziya:
After the visit of the head of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, on Sunday evening in Ain al-Tineh, where he was received by the President of the Parliament Nabih Berri, an important position was taken by the leader of the “Mukhtara”, in which he speaks of an agreement between the two men on a point considered essential in the approach of the presidential elections: a joint rejection of any “candidate challenge”.
Jumblatt said: “The most important thing is to reach maturity and review the names.” He added: “Our candidate is Michel Moawad, but we are not a team in the country, so let the names be discussed and then let’s see, Michel could be one of them. We spoke with President Berri about the presidential issue and other issues. , with a very good story. We agreed on one thing, that there will be no candidate for the challenge. “
What is noteworthy, according to what political sources overseeing “centralization” have affirmed, is that this criterion, posed by Jumblatt, has not yet been mentioned by Berri in this way. For example, but not only, he spoke to the Press Union yesterday, but he didn’t say he didn’t want a challenger candidate. As for Sunday evening, he reiterated his adherence to the specifications he had indicated months ago in his speech in Tire, to the need to meet them in the future president, saying in response to a question about the name of the candidate of the Development and Liberation Bloc, “these are the same specifications without any diminution, among these and the most important of which is that the name has a proprietary Christian, Islamic and patriotic meaning, and that it is a factor of collection, not of separation ”.
But if Berri rejects the candidate for the challenge, as Jumblatt said, this should be a turning point in the presidential election, according to sources. The data circulating, both in political salons and in the newspapers, all indicate that Berri’s candidate is the leader of the Marada movement, Suleiman Franjieh, and they cross by saying that he tries to convince not only Hezbollah of him, at the expense of the head of the Movement. Patriotic Free, Representative Gibran Bassil, but also the democratic meeting and some independent representatives, led by Sunni representatives, who still revolve around the orbit of Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
However, his deal with Jumblatt to exclude any candidate poses a challenge, which naturally means he is now excluding Franjieh from his options. If the leader of “Bnachii” is more acceptable to opponents than Basil, this distinction is caused by the way he addresses him and the way he personally treats those who disagree with them. And the axis of opposition in the region, even though he attended the UNESCO conference organized by the Saudi embassy last Saturday. The criterion of the “challenge”, the sources add, is not so much in the “person” as in the “political line and character” of the future candidate.
Does Berri have his own interpretation of the challenge? Or is he really in the process of abandoning Franjieh and ready to look for another candidate, who does not pose a challenge, provided that Jumblatt fulfills this concession with a similar concession from Mouawad? The answer is in the days.
