Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri finally arrived in Lebanon late Monday morning. He visited the president of the chamber to discuss the latter’s initiative to form a government of 24 members. From a source close to him, however, things would seem more complex. He would thus accuse the President of the Republic of wishing to obtain a 9th minister instead of 8 as initially envisaged.
In addition, France has indicated that the next ministers of a possible government should not stand in the legislative elections scheduled for 2022.
As a reminder, Saad Hariri, who was initially due to return to Lebanon this Sunday after a long stay in Abu Dhabi, visited France yesterday as part of a private visit. However, some sources indicate that he could have met emissaries from the French authorities during this short stay.
Nabih Berri could also visit the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, as part of the same initiative which aims to end almost 10 months of uncertainty as a new council of ministers is needed following the deterioration of the current social and economic conditions of the Pays des Cèdres.
Still on the political side, the weekend was marked by new accusations from both camps. The deputy Mustapha Alloush thus accused the President of the Republic of having presented to the Maronite Patriarch, Béchara Boutros Rahi, two government compositions comprising a third of veto, thus accusing him of violating the constitution. Le Courant du Futur also accuses the Presidency of wanting to obtain both the Ministry of the Interior and Justice while some of the relatives of the Prime Minister-designate are accused of corruption or money laundering by foreign justice, as this which is the case of the governor of the Banque du Liban himself.
On the presidency side, we deny having presented any government formula to the Patriarch, indicating rather having presented an unnamed nomination mechanism during a meeting that took place two weeks ago.
