Le Premier ministre désigné Saad Hariri s’est exprimé à l’issue de sa rencontre avec le Président de la République, le Général Michel Aoun, indiquant être honoré de le voir.
Saad Hariri a également indiqué qu’il se rendra à nouveau au Palais Présidentiel de Baabda ce mercredi pour évoquer avec le chef de l’état, la formation du prochain gouvernement.
Cette réunion, la première depuis plusieurs semaines déjà, semble montrer un léger réchauffement des relations entre les 2 hommes, après un différend important portant sur la nomination des ministres chrétiens du prochain cabinet.
En effet, si le Hezbollah, le mouvement Amal ou encore le PSP druze et le Courant du Futur pourraient choisir les ministres issues de chaque communauté religieuse, le Premier Ministre désigné Saad Hariri, sunnite, souhaitait également nommer 7 des 9 ministres chrétiens, mettant ainsi en minorité la présidence de la république.
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.