Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday bid farewell to President Michel Aoun in Sunday Mass sermon, wishing him luck and success after the end of his six-year term.
“We wish him well after a long life in the various military and national positions. His tenure was not easy but rather rife with threats and difficult circumstances, seeing as Lebanon was in the middle of the region’s axes and it knew the worst existential crisis in its modern history,” al-Rahi said.
“They have gradually destroyed the state, all the way to its presidencies, plunging this higher and essential presidency into vacuum, deliberately or out of stupidity or out of selfishness,” the patriarch added.
“This presidency is the cornerstone for recognizing Lebanon’s unity and the state’s entity, seeing as the president is not a president among presidents but rather above every presidency,” al-Rahi went on to say.
Rejecting a return to the rule of “troika,” the patriarch warned that it undermines separation of powers and creates constitutional chaos.
“Presidential vacuum in Lebanon is not a destiny but rather a conspiracy,” al-Rahi cautioned.