Lebanon has numerous political parties, usually with sectarian character. Since 2005, and after the assassination of former Prime MinisterRafic Hariri, the political scene has become very polarized, with most major political parties and movements becoming part of one of two big rival alliances, the March 8 Alliance and the March 14 Alliance. Since the election of Michel Aoun as President in 2016 and the formation of a new Government headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the 14th of March movement has lost momentum and the political scene has evolved into a coalition of Governing Parties under the control of Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Amal Movement and the Future Movement. Opposition, namely sides that were against the election of Michel Aoun as president in the 2016 elections, consisted of traditional parties such as the Kataeb party, the National Liberal Party, and Achraf Rifi’s movement. Since then, the political scene has been witnessing the emergence of new non-sectarian political groups such as Sabaa and Citizens in a State, in addition to many civil society groups who were loosely allied during the last parliamentary elections. They share a common goal to replace what they consider a failed political model that was introduced following the end of the civil war leading to the 2020 economic crisis. Lebanon’s unique experiment of a Sectarian Democracy trying to blend democratic principles and religious allocation of roles and functions together with 18 religious laws being applied to citizens’ personal status, in contradiction with the fundamental principles of democracy, the sovereignty of the people and equality of rights between the citizens has led to the sectarian division of the Lebanese peopleby law, to politically weak institutions, a divided nation and the chain of historical events such as the 1958 crisis and the 1975 civil war, Palestinian militant attacks against Israel from Lebanese territory, occupation of Lebanon by Syrian forces in 1976 and by Israeli forces in 1982 and the actual presence of weapons in the hands of Hezbollah outside the control of the Lebanese Government. Article 24 of the Constitution assigns half the seats in the national's legislature, the Chamber of Deputies, to Christians and the other half to Muslims. However after the 2018 parliamentary elections, the political power in Lebanon shifted dramatically, with the Free Patriotic Movement leading in the number of seats in the Parliament and the Future Movement losing almost half of its seats. The Lebanese Forces almost doubled their seats in the Parliament.
Parties
Although most parties maintain that they are secular, the major political parties in Lebanon are loosely representative of a certain faith community. In 2005, the political scene became strongly polarized with most active political parties belonging to either the 8th and 14th of March alliances. Since then, this division has become less and less significant as coalition governments became the norm. The following list places political parties within the two alliances.
