Hariri resigns to form a government in Lebanon and worsens the political and economic crisis

Lebanon's prime minister-designate, Saad Hariri, resigned this Thursday from the task of forming a government after eight months of failed attempts and after his latest proposal was not accepted by the country's president, Michel Aoun, as he announced in a speech. spread on their social networks.

His resignation exacerbates the deep political crisis and economic collapse that have been weighing down the Arab country for nearly a year, which is now rushing towards an even more uncertain future.

Lebanon has not had a fully functioning government since the last cabinet, led by the still acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab, resigned in August 2020, following the explosion that took place in the port of Beirut that killed more than 200 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damages.

Political stagnation has prevented the country from facing the economic and financial crisis that has dragged on for years and has been aggravated by the pandemic.

The World Bank has described the crisis in Lebanon as one of the deepest in the world since the mid-nineteenth century.

In this context, the international community has conditioned its economic and material assistance to the country on the formation of an Executive and the adoption of economic reforms.

More information

• Saad Hariri returns to power in Lebanon a year after resigning due to the wave of protests

• Beirut is still waiting for answers

• Exodus and poverty in a Lebanon in free fall

“It is evident that we are not going to be able to agree with the president.

During the conversation I asked him if he needed more time to think about the team.

He told me that we could not agree, so I resigned to form the Government.

May God help the country ”, said Hariri in his resignation speech, during which he assured that Aoun asked him for essential changes in the configuration of the Executive.

Following Hariri's announcement, groups of protesters have taken to the streets of Beirut, especially in mostly Sunni areas, where they have overturned garbage containers and burned tires. The Army has deployed in these areas, firing into the air to disperse the protesters.

The meeting between the two political veterans came after Hariri, former Lebanese prime minister and the country's main Sunni political figure, on Wednesday presented Aoun with a new government proposal, which many already warned that it would be his last attempt to unlock the situation. Since being commissioned to form a cabinet last October, Hariri has submitted several proposals to President Aoun, but the two leaders have been unable to agree on a list. Hariri's final proposal, which assured that it consisted of 24 technocratic ministers, came after diplomatic activity had also intensified in recent days to find a way out of the crisis in the country.

The confessional political system that governs Lebanon makes it even more difficult to find a way out of the crisis, since power is distributed by quotas, so that the president must be a Christian;

the Prime Minister, a Sunni Muslim, and the Speaker of Parliament, a Shiite Muslim.

Aoun, a Maronite Christian, has attributed the failure in the formation of a government to Hariri's intransigence, and accused him, in a message from the information office of the Presidency, of not being willing to discuss any changes to his proposal.

He has also assured that Hariri had made the decision to resign beforehand, and that he had met with him only to justify his step back.

Following Hariri's resignation, Lebanon must now find another Sunni candidate to entrust with the task of forming a government under the country's sectarian power-sharing system. Along these lines, the information office of the Presidency has advanced that Aoun will set a date as soon as possible to resume parliamentary consultations in order to find a replacement. The clock and the political calendar, however, are running against him, since parliamentary elections should be held in less than a year, an appointment that some believe could make it difficult for someone to take the step.

Meanwhile, the country remains in free fall, suffering from hyperinflation, severe shortages of fuel, medicine, food and other basic products, and constant power outages. Since the end of 2019, its currency has lost more than 95% of its value, and more than half of its population lives below the poverty line. Frustrated by the political paralysis in the country, the European Union is preparing a sanctions regime against some Lebanese leaders.