Sometime next week, most likely on March 17 or 18, a new political body will be announced in Lebanon. It will have different aspirations and its structure will differ from that of other bodies. It will group together independent intellectuals and activists around one politician who has never before taken on such a role in the past, but who has played many important behind-the-scenes roles since the mid-1970s. The name of this person is former MP Samir Franjieh.
Those working on this political project consider themselves independent Lebanese citizens who have become convinced of the goals of the March 14 movement, which they consider to be the Arab Spring’s vanguard. They strongly support the Arab Spring despite all the setbacks it has encountered. The March 14 movement, which acquired its name from the million-man demonstration in Martyrs’ Square on March 14, 2005, one month after Lebanon's late prime minister Rafiq Hariri’s assassination, was a reaction to a massive demonstration by Hezbollah and its allies six days earlier on March 8, 2005, held under the banner of “Thank You Syria.”
