Nassib Lahoud - Politics

Politics

After his backstage participation in the Taif conference in Saudi Arabia, which ended the destructive Lebanese civil war, he became ambassador to the United States of America, where he had high-level relationships with leading U.S politicians. In 1991 he returned to Lebanon and was appointed Maronite Christian parliamentarian of the Metn region. He was re-elected in organised legislative elections in 1992, 1996 and in 2000.

From the beginning of his political life, he situated himself in the opposition to the pro-Syrian governments that ruled the country. He opposed the economic policies of the late prime minister Rafiq Hariri, and Syrian interference in the Lebanese political scene. He voted against the constitutional amendments imposed by Syria to extend the mandates of presidents Elias Hrawi in 1995, and Emile Lahoud in 2004.

In 2001 he joined the Qornet Shehwan Gathering, regrouping prominent Christian opposition figures under the patronage of Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir.

The same year, he founded along with about two hundreds and fifty Lebanese intellectuals (including Misbah Ahdab, Camille Ziadé, Nadim Salem, Antoine Haddad, Ziad Baroud, Wafic Zantout, Mona Fayad, Hareth Sleiman,Malek Mroueh, and Melhem Chaoul) the Democratic Renewal Movement. A movement that presents itself as a reformist and laic, opposition political movement.

He was a prominent figure of the anti-Syrian opposition movement that started to organise after the extension of the pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud's term and which gained more political weight following the assassination of Rafiq Hariri on 14 February 2005.

The Democratic Renewal Movement is part of the March 14 Alliance, an anti-Syrian coalition (also regrouping Saad Hariri's Future Movement, Amine Gemayel's Kataeb Party, Elias Atallah's Democratic Left, Carlos Éddé's National Bloc and Dory Chamoun's National Liberal Party). Nassib Lahoud took part in the 2005 legislative elections in his Metn district, at the head of the opposition list. He lost the elections against Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement and allied pro-Syrian figures.