Suleiman Frangieh
 |
Suleiman Frangieh |
Suleiman Kabalan Beik Frangieh, last name also spelt
Frangié, Franjieh, or
Franjiyeh, (
15 June 1910 -
23 July 1992) (
Arabic: سليمان فرنجية), was
President of
Lebanon from
1970 to
1976. His presidency saw the beginning of the
Lebanese Civil War, which raged from
1975 to
1990, as well as the start of the
Syrian military occupation of Lebanon, which continued until
2005.
Frangieh was educated at
De La Salle School in
Tripoli,
Saint Joseph School in
Zgharta, and
Aintoura College in
Kisrwan, before graduating from the
Jesuit University in
Beirut. He went on to run an importing and exporting business.
Frangieh was briefly threatened with arrest in
1957 when implicated in the murder of several members of a rival clan. He fled to Syria, where he became acquainted with
Hafez al-Assad, who was later to become
President of Syria. The charges against him were soon dropped, however, and following his brother
Hamid Beik Frangieh's retirement from politics in
1957, he returned to Lebanon in
1960 to succeed as the
National Assembly member for Zgharta.
Frangieh was reelected to Parliament in
1964 and
1968. During his decade in Parliament, he held a number of ministerial portfolios as Minister of Post, Telegraph, and Telephone, Agriculture, the Interior, Justice, the Economy, and Public Works.
In the closest and possibly most controversial presidential election in
Lebanese history, the National Assembly elected Frangieh to the Presidency of the Republic on
August 17 1970. He owed his upset victory over
Elias Sarkis to a last minute change of mind by
Kamal Jumblatt, whose supporters in the National Assembly switched their votes to Frangieh. Posing as a consensus candidate, Frangieh drew support from both the right and the left and from all religious factions; there was little that united his supporters ideologically except his promise to maintain the semi-
feudal system which concentrated power in the hands of local clan leaders known as
Zaiyms, a system that many
Zaiyms felt was being undermined by reforms enacted by the administrations of Presidents of
Fuad Chehab (
1958-
1964) and
Charles Helou (
1964-
1970), reforms that Sarkis had pledged to continue. Frangieh's victory also owed something to his willingness to resort to violence: after the third ballot resulted in a 49/49 split, gunmen led by Frangieh's son
Tony forced their way into the parliamentary complex and forced the Parliamentary Speaker (who, by custom, had abstained) to use his
casting vote in favour of Frangieh.
When the
Lebanese Civil War began, Frangieh maintained a militia, the
Marada Brigade, under the command of his son Tony. He initially participated in the
Lebanese Front, a right-wing, mainly Christian, coalition of politicians and militia leaders, but in early
1978 he broke with them over their tacit collaboration with
Israel and his own pro-Syrian leanings. In June
1978, Tony, together with his wife and infant daughter, was assassinated by militiamen from the
Phalangist militia. Frangieh vowed revenge, within a few months, Bashir Gemayels daughter was killed in car bomb then Bashir was killed himself in 1982.
Frangieh remained an ally of Syria. He attempted to make a comeback in
1988, but the National Assembly, which had been expected to elect him, failed to achieve a
quorum owing to a boycott by some Christian parliamentarians enforced by the
Lebanese Forces militia. He died on
23 July 1992, two years after the civil war ended.
The scion of one of the leading
Maronite families of
Zgharta, near
Tripoli, Frangieh was the second son of Kabalan Suleiman Frangieh, who was to become a member of
Parliament and his wife
Lamia Raffoul. His grandfather,
Kabalan Frangieh, had been a District Governor. Frangieh had five children with his
Egyptian-born wife,
Iris Handaly. On the death in
1981 of his brother Hamid, Frangieh succeeded him as head of the Frangieh clan. His grandson,
Suleiman Frangieh, Jr. was Minister of the Interior from
2004 to
2005 and is regarded as a leading candidate to succeed President
Emile Lahoud in
2007, despite having lost his parliamentary seat in the
general election held in May-June
2005.
