14 March Alliance

The March 14 alliance, named after the date of the Cedar Revolution, is a coalition of political parties and independents in Lebanon that call for sovereignty over all Lebanese territories, led by MP Saad Hariri, younger son of Rafik Hariri, the assassinated former prime minister of Lebanon, as well as other figures such as Samir Geagea, president of the Lebanese Forces.

The Free Patriotic Movement of General Michel Aoun left the informal grouping before the 2005 general election, before March 14 was an established alliance, due to major disagreements. After the 2005 elections, The Free Patriotic Movement was alone in the opposition, but was joined one year later by the so-called March 8 Alliance in November 2006.

Despite everything that has happened since - the series of assassinations of leading Lebanese figures (journalists, politicians, generals), the war of July-August 2006 , the polarisation of Lebanese politics - the events of 14 March 2005 have assumed a kind of legendary significance in Lebanese eyes. There are two reasons for this. First, the huge assembly brought together people from the country's disparate sectarian communities who until then had only ever joined in battle. Second, it engaged a whole new generation in civilian politics, when for so long the only way to get involved had been behind the barrel of a gun. The protests' impact was such that they completely eclipsed the gathering orchestrated by Hizbollah a few days earlier in an attempt to shore up the three pillars of Lebanon's then status quo: Syrian domination, the Lebanese security apparatus and the armed Shi'a resistance.