As Parliament continues to fail at electing a new president, the alliance between Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement appears to be on shaky grounds amid a growing number of public disagreements. However, analysts say that the alliance will likely hold, with Hezbollah as the leader this time.
When the Shiite Hezbollah and the Maronite Christian Free Patriotic Movement signed the Mar Mikhael Agreement in 2006, it created waves in Lebanese politics that are felt over a decade later.
While much of Lebanon was piling into the March 14 camp that saw Syrian control over Lebanon come to an end in 2005, Hezbollah and the pro-Syria bloc were becoming increasingly isolated.
However, that changed when Michel Aoun, the founder and leader of the FPM, sat down with Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, to officialize their alliance.
The mutually beneficial relationship came to an all-time high in 2016, when Aoun was propelled into the presidency thanks to Hezbollah’s support. In doing so, Hezbollah ensured that they had an ally in Lebanon’s highest office that also served to provide them with a Christian cover, practically making Hezbollah the most dominant force in the country.
In the years since Aoun became president, though, this relationship has increasingly soured.
The cracks in the alliance first started to show in December 2021 when, in a televised speech, Aoun brought up the possibility of re-discussing the national defense strategy.
Then, at the start of January 2022, Aoun’s son-in-law and current leader of the FPM, Gebran Bassil, said that he “wants to develop” the agreement between the two parties.
Now, as Lebanon prepares to enter 2023 without a president, the distance between Hezbollah and its Christian ally appears to have widened, publically attacking each other in the media amid disagreements on who should be the next president and whether or not the government should be able to meet while there is no president.
“I am not saying that the Mar Mikhael Understanding failed,” Bassil told the Lebanese broadcaster LBCI. “Rather it is at stake.”
https://nowlebanon.com/cracks-appear-in-the-hezbollah-fpm-alliance/