Amine Gemayel

Amine Gemayel (rear RTL أمينالجميل) (born in 1942) was president Lebanon of 1982 with 1988.

Born with Beirut, Gemayel is the son of Pierre Gemayel, founder of the left Kataeb, the Lebanese phalanges. It belongs to a Lebanese big family, the family Gemayel. Gemayel was elected with the presidency of the Lebanese republic by the National Assembly the September 21st 1982, to succeed his/her brother Bachir Gemayel who had been elected the previous month but had been assassinated before his taking up the duties.

After obtaining her diploma in right, Amine Gemayel worked with the reinforcement and the extension of the family businesses of press. In 1970, thanks to a special election, it is elected to succeed his/her uncle deceased, Maurice Gemayel, like member of the National Assembly; it beats Fouad Lahoud by 54% of the votes against 41%. He is re-elected in 1972, during the last elections being held before the twenty years which followed.

While his/her younger brother Bachir was seen like a radical politician, preaching the expulsion of the Palestinian combatants of the Lebanese ground, a radical revision of the political system, and made it clear a possible payment of peace with Israel, Amine Gemayel was more moderate. Politician of the consensus, it avoided, at least in his pre-presidential years, to alienate the Moslem politicians as his/her brother had done it. When Béchir Gemayel was assassinated, Amine was seen like a natural choice at the same time by its partisans and its Moslem opponents, to replace his assassinated brother.

The presidency proved however almost impossible to exert. With foreign armies occupying two thirds of the country, the Syria in north and is, Israel in the south, and the private militia independent of the control of the government occupying all the remainder almost, the government of Gemayel missed real capacity. Its efforts to lead to an peace agreement with Israel were opposed by the Moslem Syria and politicians. Its government appeared largely unable to collect the taxes, the lords of war who controlled the ports more the big cities collecting it themselves. Much criticized Gemayel to have taken decision not reinforcing the authority of the government, but others stressed that, with the foreign occupation, its room for maneuver was limited. Under impossible conditions, it succeeds in keeping a pretense of constitutional order.

This order started to be restored in 1988. Gemayel, whose mandate arrived in the long term the September 23rd, could not be constitutionally represented. Syria, which always occupied the major part of Lebanon, insisted to propose to Mikhael Daher, well-known for its positions pro-Syrian women, like new president, but this choice was unacceptable for the Christian politicians, from which much preferred Dany Chamoun, the son of the former president Camille Chamoun, or the general Michel Aoun, the chief of the army. Chamoun and Aoun were all two unacceptable for the Syria and the Moslem politicians of Lebanon. A constitutional crisis developed. Fifteen minutes before the expiry of its mandate, Gemayel indicated Aoun at the station of Prime Minister, this one being supposed to take the role of president in the event of vacancy of the station. It acts thus to preserve the tradition which wanted that the president is a Christian Maronite, but consequently went against the tradition which wanted that the Prime Minister is a Moslem Sunnite. The politicians and the Moslem lords of war refused to accept the government of Aoun, and recognized on the contrary a rival government, carried out by Salim El-Hoss, that Gemayel had évincé with the profit of Aoun.

Hoping that its absence would help to cure divisions of Lebanon, Gemayel left in exile the twelve following years, alive in Suisse, France, and with the the United States, where he was lecturer at the department of the international businesses of the university of Harvard, like at the university of Maryland. In 2000, however, it goes back to Lebanon and falls under the opposition to the prosyrian president Emile Lahoud. Beaten in its attempts to regain the control of the party Kataëb, it founded a new political clout, the " Base Kataëb " become " Reforming movement Kataëb " , claiming itself like the true successor of the old party Kataëb founded by Pierre Gemayel. It also joined the gathering of Kornet Chehwane, a group of Christian politicians being opposed to the government, coming from various political parties. His/her son, Pierre Gemayel Jr was elected at the Parliament in 2000 and 2005 before being assassinated on November 21st, 2006. In 2005, after the Syrian withdrawal, the party Kataëb was reunified and Gemayel is indicated supreme President with life of this political training.

In 2003, Amine Gemayel tried to act as an intermediary between the US president George W. Bush and the dictator Iraq IEN, Saddam Hussein. Although its efforts to avoid the war of the Gulf which was followed from there were not crowned success, they fed the speculations on the fact that it can be candidate at the position of secretary general of UNO, at the end of the mandate of Kofi Annan.

Gemayel is married since December 1967 with Joyce Tyan, with which it had a Nicole girl, and two wire Pierre Gemayel Jr, assassinated on November 21st, 2006 and Samy, founder of the political current Loubnanouna.

At the end of July 2007, Amine Gemayel announces her candidature for the partial legislative election to fill the seat Maronite of vacant Metn left following the assassination of his/her Pierre son. A keen campaign is then launched, in which Gemayel (supported by the Alliance of March 14th) faces Camille Khoury, the candidate of the Free patriotic current supported by the General Michel Aoun, the former Deputy Prime Minister Michel Murr, the Armenian party Dashnak (Tachnag) and the parties pro-Syrians. The elections are held on August 5th, 2007. With final, Gemayel is beaten by 418 votes of variation on nearly 79000 voters. In spite of the defeat, the camp of March 14th is prevailed of a political victory based on the strong support Maronite that Gemayel received (more than 57% of the voices), the final résulat having been reached by the Armenian and Shiite support for the candidate aounist.

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