Icon: enlarge
The 48-year-old diplomat Mustafa Adib is to be the new Prime Minister in Lebanon: "Time for work"
Photo:
NABIL MOUNZER / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Usually the process takes days or weeks.
Representatives of denominations, clans and parties chatter behind closed doors until it is clear who will be the country's prime minister.
But this time everything went very quickly: on Monday the Beirut establishment agreed on the 48-year-old diplomat Mustafa Adib.
The Sunni - the constitution provides for a representative of this denomination as head of government - had previously been ambassador to Germany for seven years.
90 of 120 members of parliament were able to come to an agreement on him, including all of the major blocs, including the future movement of ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hezbollah.
Icon: enlarge
Mustafa Adib as ambassador to Federal President Joachim Gauck (2013)
Photo: Wolfgang Kumm / picture alliance / dpa
Speed was of the essence, because Lebanon has been on the brink of ruin not only since the explosion in the port of Beirut around four weeks ago: In the spring, foreign debts already amounted to 90 billion dollars, that is 170 percent of the gross domestic product.
The Lebanese lira had lost more than 80 percent of its value since 2018.
On Monday, the World Bank published estimates that the economic damage from the detonation, with at least 190 dead and more than 6,500 injured, totaled up to 7.8 billion dollars.
The country will need up to $ 760 million in emergency aid alone by the end of the year.
Adib promises to form government "in record time"
German interlocutors express themselves very benevolently about Adib: He is well networked in the Federal Republic and Europe, they have worked closely with him.
In his first post-nomination speech, Mustafa Adib pledged to form a government "in record time", carry out reforms and close a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF): "Now is not the time for talk and promises, it is now It's time for work. "
These words sound like an echo of Emmanuel Macron's warnings.
The French president came to Beirut two days after the devastating explosion on August 4th, called for reforms and then headed an international aid coalition.
Icon: enlarge
Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut just two days after the explosion
Photo: Pool / ABACA / ddp / abaca press
But it is unlikely that Adib can and will keep his word.
For the democracy activist Hussein al-Achi, there is hardly any difference between the new prime minister and his failed predecessor, Hassan Diab: "Both have no legitimation from the population, both lack the character of a reformer. In Lebanon you now have to join the established forces don't just step on their feet, you have to trample them on their heads to achieve something. "
The country's energy sector and the financial system urgently need to be overhauled, but above all the state must be made capable of acting.
For decades it has been paralyzed by a complicated system of balance between denominations.
"You don't just have to step on the feet of the established forces, you have to trample on their heads"
Hussein al-Achi, democracy activist
On Monday, the designated premer visited the Gemayze and Mar Mikhael districts, which were particularly badly damaged by the explosion - and learned about popular anger: abusive residents demanded "the overthrow of the system", which in their eyes hardly resembles a democracy.
A prime minister in the sense of Hezbollah
Kristof Kleemann, office manager of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Beirut, says: "The fact that the decision of who will be prime minister is made behind closed doors between the powerful from politics and business shows once again the complete lack of transparency in Lebanese politics."
Mustafa Adib had been selected by an informal panel of previous prime ministers.
One of them is Najib Mikati, who is considered to be Hezbollah's source.
The Shiite organization in Lebanon maintains a kind of state within a state.
Its core is the Hezbollah militia, which is far superior to the regular army.
In fact, the troops in Lebanon have the right to veto political decisions.
"The parties want a return to the status quo ante, before the start of the revolution in October and before the explosion," says Lokman Slim, a publisher and political activist who has run the Umam documentation center in the middle of Hezbollah-dominated southern Beirut for decades entertains.
"With Adib, Hezbollah again has a weak Sunni prime minister who covers all of its misdeeds," says Slim.
The party and its militia hardly have the welfare of the Lebanese population in mind, but primarily represent the interests of Iran.
more on the subject
Icon: Spiegel PlusIcon: Spiegel PlusBeirut after the disaster: In the ruins of a cityBy Christoph Reuter, Thore Schröder and Lorenzo Tugnoli (photos)
French President Macron also reiterated his call for reforms on his second visit to Beirut since the explosion: the official occasion is the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the modern Lebanese state.
Meetings with the singer Fairoz and his counterpart Michel Aoun were on the agenda, and he also announced that he would organize an aid conference for Lebanon in October.
But the visit can be understood as a warning.
The next six weeks are "of crucial importance" for Lebanon.
"This is the last chance for this system," Macron said in an interview with the Politico website.
Icon: The mirror
