Foundation of Kataeb Party
On his return to Lebanon later that year, Gemayel founded Al Kataeb Al Loubnaniyyah party (also known as Les Phallanges Libanaises in French, or the Lebanese Phalangist party in English), with Georges Naqqache, Charles Helou, Chafic Nassif and Hamid Franjieh, who was later replaced with Emile Yared, modelling the party after the Spanish and Italian Fascist parties he had observed there. Gemayel was also influenced from the Sokol movement of Czechoslovakia during this visit to the Central Europe after the 1936 Olympic games, and employed the doctrine of this movement while founding the Kataeb party. Kataeb Party is described as a right-wing Christian Party.
The foundation of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party by Antun Saadeh in 1932 was the trigger for the establishment of the Kateb Party, since the former actively tried to influence Lebanon towards the Syrian interests, leading to direct challenge for Lebanese nationalists. The founders of the Kataeb Party were young, French-educated and middle-class professionals who committed to independent and Western-oriented Lebanon. Charles Helou, who later served as Lebanon's President from 1964 to 1970, was one of the founders. By the time of his presidency, however, Helou was no longer a party member, and Gemayel unsuccessfully opposed him in the presidential election of 1964.
Read more about this topic: Pierre Gemayel
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