Kataeb Party leader Samy Gemayel called on Parliament to assume its responsibilities by passing the long-awaited decentralization law, calling it a crucial step toward modernizing the country's political and administrative life.

Speaking at the third participatory conference organized by "Renewal for the Nation" under the title "Decentralization: The Time Is Now," Gemayel said Lebanon has a rare opportunity to push through reforms, driven by mounting public demand for change.

He argued that decentralization would empower every region to develop long-term plans independently, freeing them from the inefficiencies of the central government. This, he said, would shift sectarian competition for control of the central state into healthy competition within regions to improve people's daily lives.

The Kataeb leader noted that the parliamentary subcommittee assigned to examine the law had convened 76 sessions, accounting for nearly 200 hours of work, and had completed most of the articles. All major political parties, he said, participated in the drafting process and endorsed the text. What remains now, he added, is the political will to complete the final steps. He urged the immediate reactivation of the subcommittee to finish the work and submit the bill to the full Parliament for a vote.

Gemayel emphasized that decentralization should no longer remain a topic for conferences to debate, but must be enacted through real action.

"This can only happen if Parliament — from the Speaker down to the heads of the relevant committees — does its job," he stressed.

Drawing on international models, Gemayel said real decentralization would involve directly elected regional councils and leaders with administrative and financial autonomy, holding a legal status independent from the central government, similar to municipalities.

He recalled that in 2010 he introduced a municipal law aimed at laying the foundation for a full decentralization framework aligned with international standards. Under President Michel Sleiman, a special committee led by former Minister Ziad Baroud and a team of legal experts was formed to draft the law. Although the committee's work was not finalized before Sleiman left office, Gemayel later personally submitted the draft to Parliament and persuaded Speaker Nabih Berri to establish a subcommittee to study it, with representatives from all major political parties on board.

While Lebanon has a degree of decentralization through its current municipal system, Gemayel said it falls far short of what's needed to drive meaningful regional development. He, thus, proposed a three-tiered model of governance — municipal, regional, and central — under which each region would elect a local council representing its towns and villages. Those councils would, in turn, form a regional administrative council. A portion of the taxes collected would remain in the region, while the rest would be sent to the central government for fair redistribution to support less developed areas, promoting balanced growth across the country.