No Salaries Before Eid al-Adha: Lebanese Debate on Financial Crisis

Despite the extension of the strike by public sector employees, no official initiative has been registered to date to address this dire situation, which paralyzes all state administrations and disrupts the interests of citizens. Rather, the situation continues on the basis of officials in one valley and employees in another valley.

What is new today is that the sources of the Ministry of Finance confirmed to the “Lebanon Debate” that it will not be able to pay the salaries of public sector employees before Eid al-Adha, as usual, due to the lack of appropriations and the need for legislation in the House of Representatives in order to spend additional appropriations, which sparked anger and confusion. Wide range of employees.

In this context, a member of the Association of Public Administration Employees, Ibrahim Nahal, revealed that “a meeting will be held at the beginning of next week between all the affected associations, especially after they learned that no salaries will be paid before Eid al-Adha.”

In an interview with the “Lebanese Debate”, he expressed “the employees’ anger at the arbitrary decisions issued by the authority, and their anger at the inability of the Ministry of Finance to pay their salaries before Eid al-Adha, announcing that they are about to announce a series of moves that they will take, and they may be periodic and weekly, And it will start from the northern region, provided that something similar to it is prepared at the level of Lebanon.”

And he stressed that “what is happening in terms of raising taxes and fees is unacceptable, and must be rejected by the entire Lebanese people,” describing what the authority is doing as “recklessness.”

He touched on the sit-in that was carried out in Tripoli last Wednesday, and it is remarkable in his opinion that the number of demonstrators increased from the previous sit-in, and it was a quantum leap.

In conclusion, Nahal considered that “there is no turning back, so the rate of movements must be increased and be multiple and branched in more than one point, and it is not necessary to be limited to movement in front of the Grand Serail, so those who object to the current reality can sit in front of the houses of ministers and the prime minister in Tripoli, for example.” To add variety to the move.