March 8 Alliance

Lebanon
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The March 8 Alliance is a coalition of various political parties in Lebanon. It had been the ruling coalition in Lebanon with the government headed by prime Minister Najib Mikati from June 2011 until 23 March 2013.

History

The name dates back to 8 March 2005 when different parties called for a mass demonstration in downtown Beirut in response to the Cedar Revolution. The demonstration thanked Syria for helping stop the Lebanese Civil War and the aid in stabilising Lebanon and supporting the Lebanese resistance to the Israeli occupation.

Inclusion of Free Patriotic Movement

Although the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) was the basis of the March 14 Alliance movement through the launching of the Liberation War against the Syrian Army on 14 March 1989 and its leading participation to all contests against the Syrian occupation until the Cedar Revolution's mass demonstration on 14 March 2005, political analysts consider that Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) left the March 14 Alliance on 6 February 2006, when its leader Michel Aoun signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hezbollah. FPM considered its job against the Syrian regime as finished when its army left Lebanon at the end of April 2005.

Free Patriotic Movement led by Michel Aoun eventually joined the rival March 8 Alliance, becoming one of its principal coalition partners.

Ruling Alliance (2011-2013)

The Progressive Socialist Party left the March 14 alliance in January 2011 after being one of its cornerstones and ostensibly aligned itself with the alliance's Change and Reform Bloc after Walid Jumblatt visited Damascus. This move gave the alliance and its partners a majority in the parliament, enabling them to name Najib Mikati as prime minister to form the Lebanese government of June 2011.^{[citation needed]}

The government led by March 8 Alliance survived 22 months until Mikati's resignation on 23 March 2013.

Constituent parties

The current majority holds 68 of 128 seats in the parliament after the 2009 elections and consists of:

Party	Arabic Name	Seats in Parliament (after 2009 election)	Demographic Base
Free Patriotic Movement	at-Tayyar al-Watani al-Hurr	19	Secular, predominantly Christian
Amal Movement	Harakat Amal	13	Secular, predominantly Shi'a Muslim
Hezbollah	Hizballah	12	Shi'a Muslim
Progressive Socialist Party	al-Hizb at-Taqaddumi al-Ishtiraki	7	Secular, predominantly Druze
Lebanese Democratic Party	al-Hizb ad-Dimuqrati al-Lubnani	4	Secular, Druze
El Marada Movement	Tayyar al-Marada	3	Christian, mainly Maronite
Glory Movement	Harakat Majd	2	Sunni Muslim
Armenian Revolutionary Federation	Tashnag	2	Secular Armenian
Syrian Social Nationalist Party	al-Hizb as-Suri al-Qawmi al-Ijtima'i	2	Secular with support across all communities
Ba'ath Arab Socialist Party	Hizb al-Ba'th al-Arabi al-Ishtiraki	2	Secular
Solidarity Party	Hizb at-Tadamoun	1	Maronite Christian
Skaff Bloc	Kutlat Skaff	0	Secular, mainly Greek Catholic
Popular Nasserite Organization	at-Tanzim ash-Sha’bi al-Nasiri	0	Secular, mainly Sunni Muslim
Arab Democratic Party	al-Hizb ad-Dimuqrati al-Arabi	0	Alawi Muslims