Beirut - (AFP) - Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah announced on Monday his party's support for former deputy and minister Suleiman Franjieh 's accession to the presidency in Lebanon, after more than four months of vacancy in the position in the country mired in an accelerating economic collapse.

"The natural candidate that we support in the presidential elections, and we consider that the specifications we take into account apply to him, is Minister Suleiman Franjieh," Nasrallah said in a speech he delivered on screen during a party celebration in honor of his party's wounded and prisoners.

Nasrallah stressed that Franjieh is a candidate supported by Hezbollah, but he is not the party's candidate, adding, "We seriously want to elect a president for the republic, and we do not want a vacuum."

This is the first time that Hezbollah, the most prominent political and military force in the country, has publicly declared its support for Franjieh's accession to the presidency, although it has been rumoring for months that it is its unannounced candidate and will work to obstruct the completion of the electoral process to ensure his success.

In 2016, former President Michel Aoun, who is considered one of the party's most prominent Christian allies, reached the presidency with the clear support of the party, after a vacancy that lasted two and a half years, and based on a political settlement between the party and its opponents.
On Monday, Nasrallah acknowledged that his party and its allies had obstructed the quorum until Aoun was elected.

Frangieh, 57, is a former deputy and minister, and is among Hezbollah's prominent allies. He is a personal friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. His name is often put forward as a candidate at every presidential election.

With the party announcing its support, Franjieh became the second candidate for the presidency after Representative Michel Moawad (50 years old), who announced his participation in the presidential race. Hezbollah describes him as a "challenging" candidate due to his closeness to the Americans.

Moawad and Franjieh hail from the predominantly Maronite Christian region of Zgharta in northern Lebanon. Neither of them has so far a majority that guarantees his access to parliament.

In previous sessions, Moawad won the support of many anti-Hezbollah blocs, including the Lebanese Forces, the most prominent Christian party, the Lebanese Kataeb and the Progressive Socialist Party led by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and some independents.

Parliament has failed since the end of President Michel Aoun's term at the end of October, during the 11 sessions it held to elect a president, amid a political division between a party that supports Hezbollah and another that opposes it, and discrepancies within each team, and the presence of a number of independents.
Since January 19, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has not set a date for a new election session.

The presidential vacancy is accompanied by legislative stagnation, while the country is led by a caretaker government with limited powers. This disrupts decision-making mechanisms at all levels, while the country has plunged since the fall of 2019 into an unprecedented economic collapse, which the World Bank ranked among the worst in the world.

The authorities have so far failed to implement reforms required by the international community to provide support in order to stop the bleeding.

The International Monetary Fund announced in April that it had reached a preliminary agreement with Lebanon on a $3 billion aid plan over four years. However, its implementation is linked to the authorities’ commitment to implement prior reforms, including the unification of exchange rates.