Will The FPM Crack Up?

The Free Patriotic Movement is facing life-threatening pressures from the inside and from the outside.

Keeping it in the family?

A lot is being said in the press about why the FPM is postponing its party elections. Some attribute it to technical reasons while some speak of internal feuds. But a good look at the matter can be found at Now Lebanon, with an investigative report that uncovers things such as the “FPM opposition”, Nepotism and financial favoritism (giving big contracts to the family):

…despite the controversy provoked by FPM’s chaotic, patronage-based political structure, the source suggested that the recent flaring of tensions is more directly related to the party’s distribution of financial patronage. “The real reason behind the explosion [of tensions] is the financial issue. The party was assigned projects worth millions of dollars in the southern suburbs, but they were given to Bassil and Hikmat Dib, because he is close to Hezbollah,” he added.

There are further allegations that Aoun’s immediate family members are acting as the party’s bankers. “All of the party’s own money, plus the recent donations received during elections and the financial support they receive from Lebanese expats, all of it was put in the personal accounts of Aoun and his family members, and into institutions such as the OTV, which is also run by his other son-in-law, Roy al-Hashem, something which had raised a lot of questions within the party,” said the source.

Moreover, the FPM’s troubles are not only internal. Today, M.P. Michel El Murr, a powerful Metn ally who recently broke ranks with Mr. Aoun, is planning a large political rally in a supposed stronghold of Mr. Aoun. The rally appears to be designed to humiliate Mr. Aoun and to assert Mr. Murr’s own political power, as he pushes for the immediate election of Mr. Michel Sleiman as President.

The question is: Will Hezbollah and its regional backers, sit and watch idly as their very important Christian ally implodes?