Phalange Party

The Lebanese Phalange (Kataeb) Party is a political party established in 1936 by Christian Maronite politician Pierre Gemayel. Although it is a secular party according to its bylaws, support has mainly come from the Christian community. The Party had one of the largest parliamentary blocs from the 1950s to the 1970s and it played a major role in the Lebanese Civil War, leading the Christian “National Front” coalition.

The Phalange Party established an armed group, the Lebanese Forces, which later morphed into an autonomous political party. Pierre Gemayel’s son Bachir, also leader of the Lebanese Forces, was elected President of the Republic in 1982 but was assassinated before his inauguration. He was succeeded by his brother Amine, who served until 1988 in a war-torn country. The party was sidelined in the 1990s, as former President Amine Gemayel went into exile in France, and the leadership was assumed by pro-Syrian regime figures. After the withdrawal of the Syrian forces in 2005, leadership of the party went back to Amine Gemayel. In 2007, Amine’s son, then Minister of Industry Pierre Gemayel, was also assassinated north of Beirut. The current leader of the Phalange Party is Amine’s younger son, MP Samy Gemayel. The Phalange Party has three Members of Parliament: Samy, Bachir Gemayel’s son Nadim, and Elias Hankash.

The Phalange Party was the first to launch a private radio station, Voix du Liban, in 1958. It also owned a newspaper, Al-Aamal, which suspended its publication towards the end of the civil war. The party operates a news website www.kataeb.org