This month’s elections have shown that religion is as significant a force as ever in the troubled Middle Eastern state
As the results of Lebanon’s parliamentary elections began to trickle in last week, the patriarch of the country’s Maronite Catholic Church was hosting Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Lebanon in his residence in Bkerké, north-east of Beirut. These influential Christian and Muslim figures were discussing the implications of Lebanon’s new political map – in particular, the shift in fortunes of the two main Christian parties, which has led to the parliamentary bloc dominated by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia political militia, losing its majority.
Lebanon’s constitution guarantees all 18 recognised religious groups representation in government, the military and the civil service. Power in the 128-seat parliament is split between Christians, Muslims and Druze; the positions of president, prime minister and speaker are allocated to a Maronite Christian, a Sunni Muslim and a Shia Muslim respectively. But alliances exist across the religious divide. Parliament is divided into two main blocs: one a coalition whose two leading parties are Shia Muslim (Hezbollah) and Christian (Free Patriotic Movement) which has dominated Lebanese politics for decades; the other an anti-Hezbollah alliance led by Sunni Muslim and Maronite Christian parties.
The election – the first since the popular uprising against the ruling establishment began in 2019 – saw losses for the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), the party of the Maronite President, Michel Aoun – and gains for the other main Christian party, the Saudi-backed Lebanese Forces (LF), a civil-war-era group that has been resurgent in recent years. Although Hezbollah and its Shia allies held their seats, the Hezbollah-led alliance no longer holds a majority in parliament.
