Beirut, March 13, 2023 (Xinhua) – Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati affirmed today (Monday) that solutions to the country’s economic and social problems cannot be found without resolving the political crisis.
Mikati said in a statement to reporters after a meeting with the Patriarch of the Maronite Church, Cardinal Beshara Al-Rai, “There are economic and social problems, but the most important thing is related to politics, and without a political solution, and for the parliament to return to its normal role, and for there to be a cabinet that has full constitutional specifications, and it is not possible to come up with a solution.” “.
And he stressed “the need to elect the President of the Republic as soon as possible in order to normalize public work in the country and the work of constitutional institutions, and to start entering into a solution.”
On the 31st of last October, Lebanon entered a presidential vacuum, with the end of former President Michel Aoun’s term, without electing a successor, as the political division and the lack of agreement of the parliamentary blocs on a consensual figure led to the failure of Parliament 11 times since last September to elect a new president for the country.
Regarding the discussion about the legitimacy of holding cabinet sessions in a caretaker format in light of the presidential vacancy, Mikati called on those he described as “critics” to play their part in electing the president of the republic as soon as possible, saying that “this is the door to salvation.”
And he believed that “the longer the presidential vacancy lasts, the greater the need to expand the scope of powers (in the caretaker government) in order to follow up on state affairs as they should be followed up.”
Miqati refused to deal with the current reality from a sectarian perspective, considering that this is “evidence of political bankruptcy at this particular time,” noting that the government’s move is national, not sectarian.
In another field, Mikati called, during a meeting with the Grand Mufti of Lebanon, Sheikh Abd al-Latif Darian, to “launch a constructive dialogue with all national components, for the sake of Lebanon’s unity and cooperation among all its people.”
The political/sectarian dispute in Lebanon centers around the characteristics of the next president, amidst the country’s suffering since 2019 from a severe financial and economic crisis.
This crisis was embodied in the scarcity of foreign currency, the collapse of the Lebanese pound, the high rates of poverty, unemployment, inflation, and the lack of fuel, medicine, and infant formula, and the World Bank ranked it among the worst in the world in 150 years.
Economists believe that electing a president for the country and forming a government capable of implementing administrative and financial structural reforms would put Lebanon on the road to recovery, with the support of the International Monetary Fund and donor countries.
