Beirut-Future Movement is still confounded by the severe loss it
suffered in the municipal elections in Tripoli, the capital of the North
and Lebanon’s second largest city.
Resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, who fought the elections alone
against a coalition of political parties and Tripoli personalities,
achieved an unexpected victory last month. The shock that Future suffered from compelled its leaders to launch a
campaign of self-criticism to review the mistakes which it had
committed and which had led to a drop in popular support for the
movement – not just in northern Lebanon but also in the capital Beirut
where the results of the municipal polls were disappointing.
Unlike many other political parties, Future, which is led by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, has admitted to making mistakes. Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, who is a party member, has
called on the movement to learn from those blunders ahead of next year’s
parliamentary elections. The changes in people’s temperament have not only affected the Future
Movement but also the rest of the political parties from the March 8
and 14 rival camps.
While Hariri hasn’t directly commented on the results of the
municipal elections, the ongoing activity at this residence in Beirut
suggests that he has launched a mission to rectify the miscalculations.
Hariri began to work on unifying members of his party, which is
facing the threat of disintegration after Rifi withdrew his membership
and hinted that he would form his own movement.
Rifi told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the result of the Tripoli
polls put more responsibilities on him to move from the current stage to
another level.
“I can’t deny that they (the polls) put me in front of a challenge. I
will deal with it according to the circumstances that arise in order to
meet the people’s expectations,” he said.
Rifi said several factors have led to a change in the public
atmosphere. Among them is Future’s “bad choice of nominating MP Suleiman
Franjieh for the presidency and ways in resolving the file of Michel
Samaha,” a former minister who is serving time in jail on terrorism
charges.
Rifi regretted that Future officials preferred to form a coalition
with former Prime Minister Najib Miqati in the Tripoli municipal
elections rather than cooperating with him to form a joint list of
candidates.
Rifi denied he has personal problems with Hariri despite rising
differences between him and Future. He said Hariri “should admit that I
became independent after resigning from the government.”
A member of Future’s politburo, former MP Mustafa Alloush, admitted
that certain mistakes committed by the movement led to the defeat of the
Future-backed coalition in the Tripoli polls.
“We hadn’t well analyzed the temperament of the Tripoli electorates,” he said.
Asked if he thought that the change in the public atmosphere should
be seen by the Future leadership as an alarm bell, Alloush said: “There
is a partial and not complete change in people’s temperament.”
“Some factors have accumulated in the past 11 years, meaning since
the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri, and there is an
absence of stances that mobilize the people,” he said.
“Future is not a revolutionary party. It has a lot of pragmatism and
is liberal,” he said, adding that the movement does not force people to
support it.
Sectarian mottos might lead to popular support, he said. But he warned that “such slogans could lead to a disaster.”
“When a person is handed a responsibility, he cannot resort to sectarian
mobilization,” Alloush told Asharq Al-Awsat, alluding to Rifi.
“The stage in the aftermath of the elections imposes a new status quo
… which requires more understanding of the people’s choices but without
being dragged into instincts,” he said.
