Free Patriotic Movement chief and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil announced Tuesday that the FPM has decided to boycott Thursday’s cabinet session as a “warning message,” cautioning that the country might be plunged into a political “system crisis” if the other parties do not heed the movement’s demands.

“We have decided to boycott Thursday’s cabinet session in order to send a warning message aimed at putting an end to the violation of the law,” said Bassil after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc in Rabieh.

“The issue has to do with respecting the National Pact in the government’s meetings. Will it convene without us? Will it convene in the absence of the Christian forces?” Bassil added, highlighting the fact that the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party are not represented in the cabinet.

“They are preventing the election of a president in a manner that respects the National Pact and they are blocking the approval of an electoral law that respects the National Pact, so are they also seeking a government that is in violation of the National Pact?” Bassil asked.

The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that distributed power among the country’s religious communities and set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state.

“In light of the answers of the prime minister and the government’s components, we could face a system crisis after Thursday’s session, although we are defending the political system through demanding its proper implementation,” Bassil warned.

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