The Presidency of the Republic has indicated that the mandatory parliamentary consultations aimed at appointing a new prime minister will begin on July 26th. It will be a question of appointing a replacement for Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri who announced the withdrawal of his candidacy last Friday.
Saad Hariri had already been appointed on October 22, 2020, after Mustapha Adib recused himself. As a reminder, Lebanon has been without a government since the resignation of the Hassan Diab cabinet on August 10, 2020, 6 days after the explosion in the port of Beirut. However, the latter had been paralyzed following disputes over the estimates and distribution of losses in the banking sector. The parliamentary finance and budget committee then tried to minimize the losses in this sector of activity, being supported by the intermediaries of the banks within the parliament and by the president of the chamber of deputies Nabih Berri. Hassan Diab went so far as to call for the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies at the time this was refused by Nabih Berri who ultimately got the better of him.
Since then, the constitution of a new cabinet has been a prerequisite for the release of economic aid to Lebanon. The economic crisis has worsened further, with a significant deterioration in the purchasing power of the population to the tune of 93% compared to 2 years ago. The minimum wage is therefore only $ 30 per month, far from the poverty line set at $ 6 per day. Based on the median salary, 75% of the population is currently living under the poverty line. 77% of the population would no longer have enough to eat, including 33% of children, indicated the authors of a UNICEF report.
