The Popular Front for Change and Liberation (, ''al-Jabha aš-š‘abiyya li'l-taghayyir wa'l-taḥrīr'') is a coalition of
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
n
political parties
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
. It briefly participated as the leader of the official
political opposition
In politics, the opposition comprises one or more political parties or other organized groups that are opposed to the government (or, in American English, the administration), party or group in political control of a city, region, state, coun ...
unicameral
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...
parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
Xinhua
Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: ),J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English or New China News Agency, is the official State media, state news agency of the China, People's Republic ...
'', 9 May 2012 The Popular Front for Change and Liberation brought together Jamil's People’s Will Party, Ali Haidar's Syrian Social Nationalist Party – Intifada, and others.
They have criticized the ruling party on occasion, particularly after the 2012 parliamentary election, when Qadri Jamil questioned the transparency of the vote and considered giving up his seat depending on the government's response, and a member of the SSNP complained about the Ba'ath party's domination of parliament.
Leader of the SSNP-Intifada Ali Haidar announced on 6 May 2014 that his party was withdrawing from the Popular Front for Change and Liberation over a difference in positions towards the 2014 presidential election. The SSNP supported the re-election of
Bashar al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator
Sources characterising Assad as a dictator:
who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...
.
On 10 August 2014, the remaining Popular Front signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, calling for ″comprehensive grassroots change, which means the transition from the current authoritarian regime to a democratic pluralistic system within a democratic civil State based on the principle of equal citizenship to all Syrians regardless of their ethnic, religious and sectarian identities.″
Following Assad regime's decision to organize
parliamentary elections
A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...
in 2016 without upholding its previous pledges to seek constitutional amendments and political negotiations, PFCL withdrew its participation from the Syrian parliament and joined the rest of Syrian opposition. The elections were widely perceived as a hardening of government stance and part of its attempts scuttle the Geneva framework.