After the terrible explosion which devastated the port of Beirut a week ago (at least 160 dead, 6,000 injured, 300,000 homeless), political explosions are linked in Lebanon. On a finding of helplessness, the Lebanese Prime Minister drew the consequences on Monday afternoon by announcing the resignation of his government: "The corruption system is more powerful than the state, which, with its hands tied, is incapable to fight it ”, cracked Hassan Diab, the tone serious, by accusing the political class of being the cause of its failures. Seven months after his appointment in a Lebanon in full economic plunge, here he resigns while the country is on the brink of collapse.
According to Hassan Diab, the scale of the tragedy in Lebanon is indescribable. "The explosion in Beirut is one of the manifestations of the system and the result of endemic corruption," he added, without naming anyone, but accusing those he describes as corrupt of not having it. head that to "continue the demolition of what remains of the structures of the State".
VIDEO. Lebanon: Prime Minister announces the resignation of the government
"Between the Lebanese and change stands a thick wall, protected by the corrupt", he cracked again. While he was delivering his resignation speech, clashes between demonstrators (who are calling for a big sweep in the political class) and police forces were taking place around Parliament. They are now daily, since the big demonstrations on Saturday, punctuated by violence with the police.
The government, very weakened by the sudden departure of five ministers, held its last meeting on Monday afternoon, during which the Prime Minister failed to pass a bill on the holding of elections anticipated legislative. It is more this failure which is at the origin of the fall of the government that the anger of the street which seizes since the explosion of the port of Beirut.
A crisis with incalculable consequences
Hassan Diab surprised the entire political class by proposing, on Saturday, the holding of early elections ... which do not appear in the demands of the street. In the eyes of the protesters, a new ballot would in fact change nothing immediately, since the electoral law remains calibrated to serve the interests of traditional political forces. The very ones they have been rejecting en bloc for months, and even more radically since the tragedy of August 4.
This decision to call elections, taken without any consultation with the parliamentary majority that supports it, made up in particular of the Free Patriotic Movement (Christian party close to President Michel Aoun) and Hezbollah (armed Shiite movement), ultimately brought about its downfall. Especially since the initiative was originally part of the ranks of the parliamentary opposition!
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Struck for months by the worst economic crisis in its history, devastated by the double explosion of August 4 which destroyed part of Beirut, Lebanon entered a serious political crisis on Monday with incalculable consequences. This vacancy in executive power comes at a critical time, in a country on the brink of a major humanitarian crisis.