“If you are asked where the revolution is… then tell them that it has become within the parliament.”
With this statement and many other slogans of victory, the Lebanese received the representatives of the change that succeeded in breaching the impenetrable wall of the parliament ruled by the largest political forces.
Perhaps one of the most prominent faces that buzzed in the arenas and on social media in Lebanon is the winner of the Druze seat in the South III district on the “Together for Change” list, Firas Hamdan.
Hamdan managed to record a breach that no candidate has done in 30 years.
He toppled the politically-backed banker Marwan Khaireddin. The latter was backed by the head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Lebanese Democratic Party, and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
Firas Hamdan’s victory in this seat was the first step, and not a small one, in the change he had long fought for and which had caused him a life-threatening injury.
After being assaulted by the parliament military of Nabih Berri during protests, and badly injured by a grenade, he will now sit in the first parliamentarian session of the newly elected body alongside Berri, with a difference of 51 years between them.
Hamdan has a heroic history in the Lebanese Revolution that kicked off on October 17, 2019. He joined the ranks, sweeping the squares and leading groups of opponents of political parties in front of the Parliament in Beirut.
He was hit by a grenade thrown at his side while participating in a demonstration. Even after his quick transfer to the hospital and his subsequent recovery, a piece of shrapnel is still lodged in his heart due to the medical risk of removing it.
Dangerous to his life as it is, it just made him more adamant to keep going, fighting also for justice for the victims of the Beirut Blast, and attaining now a seat in the parliament where he intends to continue fighting for the people and the welfare of his county.
Hence, “If you are asked where the revolution is… then tell them that it has become within the parliament.”
