Kataeb Secretary General Serge Dagher deemed the appointment of an alternative judge in the case of the Beirut port explosion as an illegal, immoral and strange step, affirming that the solution is to free Judge’s Bitar hand to complete the investigation.

“It is clear that the Minister of Finance, who is affiliated to the same political party as the two ministers wanted for questioning in of the explosion, is obstructing the decree of judicial formations to obstruct the investigation,” Dagher said in an interview with Al Jadeed.

“Our role as opposition is to reproduce power. We are able to appeal, but we are unable to make decisions. All this combination, that starts from the absent, non-existent Presidency of the Republic, the obstructive conspiracy, the government that represents the political class, is responsible for Lebanon’s deteriorated situation,” he noted.

"It is funny discussing the budget in September and there are two months left until the end of the year,” he said.

Dagher stressed the importance of electing a new new president and a new and serious government that deals with adoption of reforms and independence of the judiciary.

“Whoever has to deal with the end of Michel Aoun’s tenure is himself.  He is president until the last day of his term, and he cannot take the decision to remain in power, as he becomes a usurper of power, and thus the task of the people becomes to refuse his stay,” Dagher said when asked about Bachir Gemayel’s 40th Martyrdom Commemoration.

“History repeats itself in Aoun’s era in terms of handing over power and the completely destroyed country with the disruption of constitutional institutions,” he said.

‘We will not accept to experience such crises in upcoming eras, and we will not be satisfied to live in future years like the one we experienced. We will use all available means to prevent any era like Aoun’s,” he noted.

“We say to Hezbollah that on Lebanon's territory there are two States: the state of Hezbollah, which protected the corrupt for the sake of its weapons, and the authentically Lebanese State with its purely Lebanese army. Today, we address Hezbollah and urge it to choose between the two-left choices.  Either it accepts the national partnership with the rest of the Lebanese to equally live and agree with each other on everything, or it forgets about the rest of the Lebanese for they will not abide by its called-for ways of living,” he said.

“We requested that the presidential entitlement be a first step on the road to partnership because we will not submit our fate to the Iranian-American Agreement, and our verbal escalation towards Hezbollah is due to the fact that things are no longer tolerable and we will not engage in combat with it. We agree on a president whom the Lebanese and the international community are comfortable with and who does not disrupt or cause controversy,” he continued. 

Dagher added that there was a possibility for the March 8 camp to impose its president on the Republic, but there is a strategy to prevent that president from taking office.

“The opposition is employing all its resources to form counterbalancing forces and prevent a March 8 candidate to reach presidency. We will try to bring in a president who has a parliamentary and popular mandate to negotiate with Hezbollah, but no name for this president was put forward today,” he added.

“We can understand the public's response given the status of the economy, but we also have to be honest about the fact that the money will not be returned. The Kataeb party stated as much, and we should not forget who robbed us; the issue is not just with the banks but also with the government,” Dagher said when asked about the trending bank heists.

“Banks will be stormed even more in the near future. We are going to be in a complete chaos, and all we are still doing is fiddling around,” he concluded.