The youngest Commander-in-Chief of the Lebanese Army (1984-1990) and ex-Prime Minister of Lebanon (1988-1990), the “General”, as the Lebanese call him, is today a deputy of the Kesrouan-Jbeil district, the Head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc (consisting of 22 deputies from all the Lebanese communities) at the Lebanese Parliament and the leader of the Lebanese opposition.

 Michel Aoun was born on February 18th, 1935 in Haret Hreik, a Christian-Shiite village located in the southern suburbs of Beirut. He is the son of Naim Aoun, a farmer, and Marie née Aoun, a housewife. His family consisted of six children: three boys and three girls. He studied in Beirut where he attended the educational institution of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Sacred Heart School. As a teenager, he found himself forced to suspend his studies for an entire academic year due to the financial situation of his family. During that year, he worked as a trainee in industrial drawings at an engineering studies office. When he returned to school, he successfully completed the educational curriculum, which is normally covered in two years, in one single year.     

 Although he was born in a Christian family with strong spiritual values, as a young boy, Michel Aoun succeeded to establish friendships with several Muslim comrades. “We have never had prejudices or discrimination between Ali and Pierre or Hassan and Michel”, he says. “We shared our meals and we slept over at each other’s houses. Their religious celebrations were ours and ours were theirs.”