The logos of the Future Current and the Free Patriotic Current
The logos of the Future Current and the Free Patriotic Current

The Prime Minister-designate could soon present a government formula of 24 members although he had so far maintained his proposal to compose a cabinet of 18 members.

The vice-president of the current of the future, Moustapha Alloush, who had however announced the imminent withdrawal of the candidacy of the prime minister-designate, indicates that this proposal aims to show “the real obstacle” accusing the president of the Courant du Futur Gébran Bassil of to be at the origin of the blocking of the process of formation of the government. However, he did not detail the mechanisms for the appointment of the various ministers, mechanisms precisely at the origin of the dispute between the Presidency of the Republic and Saad Hariri.

Mustapha Alloush also raised his voice, declaring that “no self-respecting Sunni figure would accept to be under the mercy of Bassil’s conditions”, while the current controversy relates precisely to the allocation of the various portfolios of the next cabinet. Thus, the Patriarch himself had estimated that the fact of granting a third of the next ministries to the Shiite community, a third to the Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri therefore to the Sunni community and a third to the Presidency of the Republic called into question the National Pact which stipulates an equal training between Christian and Muslim communities.

In addition, the President of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, at the origin of the proposal for the formation of a cabinet of 24 members considered that it is supported by the international community including France as well as by the Arab countries.

He also said that some demands are at the root of the current blockage of the process of forming the next cabinet, indicating that the current situation will continue to deteriorate until a solution is implemented.

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.

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