Lebanon is at a pivotal moment and faces a final opportunity to build a functioning State after decades of war, occupation, foreign influence and illegal weapons, Kataeb Party leader MP Samy Gemayel said during a parliamentary session to debate the government's performance.

Gemayel said Lebanon’s central problem was that it had failed for 55 years to build a State capable of protecting its people and exercising its sovereignty across the country.

“Lebanon has spent decades moving from one crisis to another without ever succeeding in building a state that can protect its people and impose its authority over all its territory,” Gemayel said.

He recalled how Lebanon moved from a 15-year civil war to 15 years of Syrian occupation, followed by another 15 years in which the country went from one war to another while remaining hostage to weapons outside state control.

Those weapons, he said, had repeatedly dragged Lebanon into conflict, ultimately contributing to the destruction of large parts of the south and the deaths of thousands of Lebanese.

But Gemayel said the current government had a different opportunity because Lebanon now had a state, constitutional institutions and an army controlling most of the country.

“The task today is to complete the process of extending state authority across the entire country,” he said. “We cannot accept the continued existence of armed pockets outside the control of the state.”

Addressing Prime Minister Nawaf Salam directly, Gemayel said the government had two choices: accept the status quo or act.

“You have two choices,” he said. “You can accept the status quo and give in to delays, obstacles, political grandstanding and all the other considerations that stand in the way of progress. Or you can implement your decisions.”

Gemayel said Lebanon was facing what he described as its last chance to establish a functioning State, adding that the Kataeb Party’s support for the government was based on that belief.

“Our support for this government comes from the conviction that this is the last chance to build the Lebanese State,” he said.

“I am not telling you to resign, Mr. Prime Minister. I am telling you to govern. Impose the authority of the state, the law and the Constitution on everyone, without exception.”

Gemayel also warned that Lebanese society itself was at risk of breaking apart as citizens lose hope in their country’s future and confidence in one another.

Young Lebanese are leaving the country, he said, draining it of its human capital, while others are increasingly looking abroad for protection or betting on regional powers and alliances.

“The danger is no longer limited to political failure,” Gemayel said. “If the government cannot implement its own decisions, Lebanon could face fragmentation and a Somalia-style collapse, until there is no State left.”

He said government decisions must be implemented and warned that those who obstruct them would bear direct responsibility for the resulting deterioration.

“Anyone who prevents the government from carrying out its decisions will be directly responsible for the fragmentation of the state and society,” he said.