Beirut 1 electoral battles for its dignity
Future bloc MP Michel Pharaon said on Thursday that the electoral battle in the Beirut I district “is for the preservation of…the dignity of the Achrafieh, Rmeil and Saifi neighborhoods.”
“Whoever wants to provoke and disrespect the families [of Achrafieh]… who drew the Lebanese flag, laid the foundations of the second independence and paid dearly for it, would be faced with their response.”
The MP said, “Those who also follow the methods of pressuring, threatening and intimidating will also be confronted by Achrafieh. Maybe exerting such pressure yielded certain results in Marjayoun, but the picture in Achrafieh’s different, because this neighborhood is not led by pressure or subordination.”
Pharaon also addressed the Armenian “brethren and the Armenian parties who we respect t but we see that the Tashnaq party was hasty and unclear in their decision. All what we asked them for was to…stay away from the March 8 coalition, and to take the same position as the president on decisive issues.”
He added, “We did not want them to be part of the March 14 alliance, but they did not want to continue the discussion about the possible formulas in Beirut’s first and second districts. Maybe they were pressured to decide before the dialogue reached any positive results.”
The alliance’s list of candidates for the Beirut I district would be announced in next few days, Pharaon said.