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The Governing Board of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) held its first meeting under new party leader Teymour Joumblatt on Wednesday, July 12, during which the need to speed up the process of electing a President of the Republic was raised.
The election is to be achieved through “productive dialogue, under the aegis of the Taif Agreement,” the board said in press communique after the meeting.
“This approach is key to preventing the vacuum that threatens the military institutions and the governance of the Central Bank,” the communique added, in reference to vacant posts on the Military Council and the term in office of the Governor of the Central Bank Riad Salameh, which expires on July 31.
The PSP stressed the importance of “reclaiming the border village of Ghajar, respecting resolution 1701 and finalizing the demarcation of the land borders between Lebanon and Israel.” It also reiterated its commitment to “adopting a defensive strategy to confront the Jewish state.”
The party also denounced the one-year prison sentence served for journalist Dima Sadek in the lawsuit brought against her by the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, on charges of defamation and slander. The party stated that “the ruling disregards the law and the Constitution and is detrimental to Lebanon, which is considered to be a country where freedoms are fully exercised.”
Commenting on the mistreatment of children at the Garderêve nursery in Jdeideh, the PSP called for “reactivating the work of the Higher Council for Childhood, a mechanism to monitor nurseries, and closing down daycare centers operating illegally in order to prevent such violence.”
Teymour Joumblatt, MP for Chouf, took over the reins of the Progressive Socialist Party on June 25, succeeding his father Walid Joumblatt who had announced his withdrawal from the presidency of the party and its executive committee in May.
