Lebanon faces a new political crisis following the failure of its deeply divided parliament in four tries to elect a president to succeed incumbent Michel Aoun, whose term ends on Monday.
Mr Aoun (89) said on Friday he would sign a decree for the government’s resignation as caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati (66) has not formed a government.
Mr Aoun declared his intention after Mr Mikati consulted senior legal experts who ruled that the caretaker government could assume presidential powers until a new president is chosen. Mr Aoun has refused proposed cabinet postings unless his party’s candidates are included, forcing Mr Mikati’s cabinet to serve in a caretaker capacity since May’s parliamentary election.
As no president has been elected and no new fully empowered cabinet has been appointed, the L’Orient Today website noted: “Lebanon will for the first time in its history experience a simultaneous power vacuum in both the presidency and the cabinet.”
Mr Aoun is a former army chief and entered politics in 1988 towards the end of Lebanon’s second civil war. When parliament did not elect a successor to outgoing president Amin Gemayel, he named Mr Aoun to head a military government. Since this appointment violated the country’s sectarian powersharing system, Lebanon had two rival governments until October 1990 when the US gave the Syrian military the green light to drive Mr Aoun out of the presidential palace.
Mass uprising
He went into exile in France until 2005, returned home, was elected to parliament, and formed the largest Christian bloc in the legislature. He allied with the Shia Hizbullah movement and assumed the presidency in 2016, two years and five months after his predecessor had stepped down. Ex-prime minister Tammam Salam told The Irish Times in May that Mr Aoun would not cede the presidency.
In October 2019, Lebanon faced a mass uprising as it descended into interlocking political, economic and social crises. While the ruling elite has clung to power, the country’s currency has lost 90 per cent of its value and 80 per cent of Lebanese have fallen below the poverty line, driving professionals to migrate and the poor to set sail in overcrowded boats for Europe.
As Lebanon’s depleting resources have been strained by a million Syrians fleeing warfare in their country, Beirut has begun repatriation convoys. Caretaker social affairs minister Hector Hajjar announced that 750 Syrians went home this week and a second trip was scheduled for next week.
Lebanese security officials said these repatriations were “voluntary” and were conducted under the auspices of the UN refugee agency, which has said it is not “facilitating or promoting” repatriation, but only “reaching out and counselling refugees” by warning that Syria is not safe for returnees.
