Free Patriotic Movement MP Cesar Abi Khalil slammed Wednesday Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat for switching in ten minutes from "defiant" to "non-defiant."

Abi Khalil questioned how Jumblat voted for Amal's Speaker, then against FPM MP Elias Bou Saab as Deputy Speaker.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called Wednesday for a Parliament session on Tuesday to elect the joint committees' members.

Berri had been re-elected as parliament speaker Tuesday for a seventh consecutive term, cementing his reputation as an immovable centerpiece of the country's political landscape.

MP Jamil al-Sayyed lashed out Wednesday at Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, saying that Berri's "thug" supporters reflect an image of Berri's morals.

"I have survived wars, detention and assassination attempts, yet I have not changed, I stayed loyal to myself," al-Sayyed said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said Wednesday that it might be better to frame a joint plan to confront the March 8 Alliance, after the PSP-backed MP failed to win the deputy parliament speaker post.

MP Ghassan Skaff lost to MP Elias Bou Saab of the Free Patriotic Movement on Tuesday. Bou Saab won with 65 votes in a second round of voting and Skaff garnered 60 votes, in what Jumblat called "a defeat of the new majority."

MP Pierre Bou Assi of the Lebanese Forces bloc on Tuesday lamented that the political establishment has “protected itself,” shortly after the election of Nabih Berri and Elias Bou Saab as parliament’s speaker and deputy speaker.

“Once again, the establishment has protected itself. As for the Lebanese Forces, it has renewed the pledge of honor with the Lebanese and Lebanon,” Bou Assi tweeted.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday hoped the newly-elected parliament will manage to “rescue Lebanon” from its worst ever economic and financial crisis.

“I hope the new parliament will be able to face the current challenges at all levels and to contribute to rescuing Lebanon from the economic and social crisis through devising the necessary legislation and laws, in order to achieve the necessary economic revival for the country,” Aoun said.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil announced Tuesday that his bloc did not vote for Speaker Nabih Berri in the parliament speaker election.

“Our stance is known as to the parliament speakership vote, which is that we cast blank votes,” Bassil said after the election session.

MPs Firas Hamdan and Michel Doueihi, who are part of 13 MPs who represent the October 17 uprising, on Tuesday withdrew from a parliament vote to choose two new secretaries for the newly-elected legislature.

The two young lawmakers withdrew following a lengthy debate between MPs and Speaker Nabih Berri over how the vote should be conducted. The debate eventually prompted Berri to call for two separate votes for the two posts – one for a Maronite secretary and another for a Druze secretary. Berri’s move, which aimed to conform to a long-standing sectarian norm, was supported by Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil and his bloc.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri held talks Tuesday with President Michel Aoun at the Baabda Balace, in a protocol meeting that followed his re-election for a seventh term as parliament speaker.

Asked whether the issue of binding parliamentary consultations to name a new premier was discussed in the talks, Berri said: “Certainly.”

MP Elias Bou Saab of the Free Patriotic Movement was on Tuesday elected deputy parliament speaker with 65 votes in the 128-seat legislature, as MP Ghassan Skaff, who is backed by the Progressive Socialist Party, garnered 60 votes.

Bou Saab won 64 votes in the first round of voting, failing to garner the 65 votes needed to be elected from the first round. Skaff garnered only 49 votes in that round as 13 blank ballots were cast.