Speaker Nabih Berri’s initiative to form a new government remains on the table.
The Amal movement and Hezbollah met on Monday to call for the formation of a new government capable of resolving the Lebanese crisis.
Nabih Berri would thus propose the formation of a cabinet of 24 non-partisan political parties and not including a veto.
However, this initiative would now clash with the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, who would insist on appointing the Christian ministers of the next cabinet, just as the President of the Chamber would notably appoint the Minister of Finance.
For the time being, the Presidency of the Republic has not made any official statement about this initiative, waiting for it to be officially communicated to it.
Some close to the presidency thus underline the existence of 2 standards, one for the Sunni community which would see its representatives appointed by Saad Hariri and for the Shiite community which would also choose its representatives and the Christian community which could not have access to that same right.
A country without a government as the economic crisis hits it hard
Lebanon has been without government since the resignation, on August 10, of outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
The formation of a new government is considered as one of the preconditions for the relaunch of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund in order to obtain the release of financial aid from the international community in the face of the economic crisis that Lebanon is going through.
Following Mustafa Adib’s failure to form a cabinet, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who resigned following major protests in October 2019, was tasked with forming a new government in October 2020.
In an attempt to unblock the situation, the former prime minister promised the Amal movement to allocate the portfolio of the finance ministry to a member of the Shiite community. He also reiterated that Lebanon could do without a state of default, thus denying the gravity of the economic crisis however experienced by the population, with 55% of it now living below the poverty line while the economic recession has reached 29% according to some reports for the year 2020.
However, Saad Hariri’s proposals for an 18-member cabinet clash with the Presidency of the Republic, who points out that if the Shiite and Sunni communities choose their representatives, the Christian representatives in the new cabinet would also be chosen by the former. designated minister. General Aoun de facto considers that the current proposals of the Prime Minister contravene both the Lebanese constitution and the national pact.
The latter, for his part, accuses the head of state of wanting to obtain a blocking third party within his new cabinet.
