Aoun Launches Electoral Campaign: When it comes to reform and state-building there is no room for centrists, We’re Refor

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP General Michel Aoun said, during the launch of his party's electoral campaign on Sunday, that the Lebanese people had an opportunity to build a powerful state after a period in which the country faced "many crimes, corruption and cases of espionage."

Gen. Aoun launched his FPM campaign, describing upcoming elections as "the most important poll in Lebanon's modern history." "We choose our candidates based on the efforts they have exerted over four years," Aoun said.

During the ceremony, Aoun said, "We have encouraged all those who aspire to represent their citizens to intensify their electoral campaigning. We have followed their activities and we will choose the candidates based on certain criteria."

He added politics overshadowed the law in Lebanon and "all those who benefit from corruption reject our speech that calls for reform."

General Aoun attacked the formation of a centrist parliamentary bloc. "We are not surprised that those who pretend to be reformists would call for a centrist approach," he said. "Had they been real reformists they would have awoken the judiciary from its long slumber."

He said the project of reform was based on many proven facts and realities, which he noted did not accept centrism because people either supported a strong state or corruption.

"Centrism, due to all previously mentioned facts and tools to resolve them, means keeping these problems. We should announce clear and firm positions to ensure the punishment of all those convicted by administrative and judicial investigations," he said.

"The ruling class is trying to advertise a group of decaying candidates under different titles with the aim of breaking up Christians and consequently the Lebanese situation to prevent the FPM from reaching Parliament and achieving reform," General Aoun argued.

"When it comes to reform and state-building there is no room for centrists," he added. "We are reform extremists," the FPM leader concluded.