The Free Patriotic Movement organized its annual general conference in commemoration of March 14th, attended by the Movement Chief, MP Gebran Bassil, its vice-presidents and members of the 'Strong Lebanon' parliamentary bloc, alongside a crowd of supporters and cadre members. Addressing the attendees, Bassil said: 'Our political work requires a lot of communication with people, from within the Movement and the country and from outside and at all levels.' He added that 'this effort corrects the image that was distorted by the media assassination campaigns to which we were subjected...' He considered that the corruption accusations that FPM has faced were due to its reform approach that exposed those who were actually corrupt and who financed the media to distort FPM's image. 'They accused us of sectarianism because we are patriots and our demand for a civil state strikes their sectarianism. They accused us of confrontation because we seek understanding and unison,' Bassil went on. He continued to stress, ' Our choice is the state and coexistence in full partnership, because the state brings us together and organizes our lives and prevents the disintegration of society and institutions and the destruction of national unity, and from here we propose three components: the state and living together within it, unity and partnership, national sovereignty and a defense strategy." 'The state is our goal," underlined Bassil, adding, 'As for power, it is a means, and the goal is to win the country and preserve the Movement within it, and when power conflicts with the goal, we abandon it and shift to the opposition.' However, Bassil considered that the only risk of being in the opposition is abandoning FPM's pioneering role in representing an essential component of the country, stressing that the Movement must not close in on itself but rather combine flexibility in behavior and firmness in principles, i.e. maintaining balance between principle and realism, accepting settlement and rejecting bargains. The FPM Chief bel ieved that his Movement 'must remain the link between the inside and the outside, and as Lebanese we must remain the link between the East and the West, and be free in culture, belief and politics without being isolationist, rejecting and negative.' Bassil reiterated the Lebanese message of coexistence, considering that the biggest challenge for Christians is establishing equal partnership in the country. Source: National News Agency - Lebanon
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