Lebanon: Can a Government be Formed Before Christmas?

After holding “positive” talks with President Michel Aoun on the Cabinet formation crisis, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri said Tuesday he hoped a government lineup would be reached before Christmas in the most optimistic signal about breaking the weekslong deadlock before the end of the year.

“The meeting with the president was actually positive in which an atmosphere of openness prevailed. We decided to meet again tomorrow [Wednesday], but we will not announce the time for the meeting for security reasons,” Hariri told reporters after the 75-minute meeting with Aoun at Baabda Palace.

“We will hold successive meetings to come up with a government lineup before Christmas, inshallah,” he added.

Hariri did not elaborate in his terse statement on the proposed Cabinet formula after his 13th meeting with Aoun since he was designated to form a new government on Oct. 22.

A source at Baabda Palace said Aoun and Hariri have made “progress in their discussion on the distribution of ministerial portfolios.”

The two leaders agreed to continue their talks Wednesday on “some sticking points” in the proposed government lineup, the source told The Daily Star. He did not say what these points were.

The meeting appeared to have at least defused tensions after the eruption of a “war of words” last week between Aoun and Hariri who traded barbs over responsibility for the delay in the formation of a proposed 18-member Cabinet comprising nonpartisan specialists to be tasked with enacting urgent reforms in order to rescue the country’s collapsing economy and rebuild Beirut following the massive Aug. 4 explosion that devastated Beirut Port.

It also came amid escalating tensions between Hariri’s Future Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement headed by MP Gebran Bassil after the FPM accused the premier-designate of seeking to overstep the president’s constitutional power in the Cabinet formation process.

Tuesday’s meeting was the result of mediation efforts made by Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai aimed at facilitating the formation of a new government desperately awaited by the Lebanese, reeling from the worst economic and financial crisis in the country’s history, as well as the international community which has linked the release of billions of dollars in promised aid to the crises-ridden country to the implementation of a slew of structural reforms.

Rai, who has been pressing rival political leaders to agree on the swift formation of a Cabinet of independent and nonpartisan experts to enact reforms, met last week separately with Aoun, Hariri and Bassil in an attempt to bridge the wide gap between the president and the premier-designate over the shape and makeup of the next government.

Tuesday marked two months since Hariri was designated to form a new government made up of nonpartisan experts to deliver reforms.

Hariri’s attempts to form a new Cabinet have been bogged down by rival factions’ horse-trading over key ministerial seats, as well as lingering rifts with Aoun and the FPM, mainly over the distribution of key ministries among various sects and also over the naming of nine Christian ministers in the proposed 18-member Cabinet.

In addition to rejecting granting veto power to any party in the next government, Hariri was also reported to have opposed allotting three key ministries that deal with security: the Defense, Interior, and Justice to Aoun and the FPM.

Hariri presented to Aoun on Dec. 9 his first draft Cabinet lineup since his designation, but it had failed to convince the president, who responded by submitting a counter-Cabinet proposal. Aoun’s unprecedented move of presenting a counter-Cabinet proposal was viewed as a rejection of Hariri’s proposed lineup.

Aoun and the FPM have since called on Hariri to adopt unified criteria in the distribution of ministerial portfolios among sects.

The president’s opponents have accused him of seeking a ministerial share of seven ministers that would grant him veto power in the proposed 18-member Cabinet, or one-third of the 18 ministers plus one.

Future Movement officials have also accused Bassil of obstructing the Cabinet formation with his conditions, which include acquiring veto power, saying it would not happen.

The FPM’s 24-member Strong Lebanon bloc, the biggest bloc in Parliament with the largest Christian representation, Tuesday renewed its demand for the adoption of unified criteria in the government formation process.

“The bloc hopes that the president and the prime minister-designate will reach with the utmost speed a common approach based on clear principles and unified criteria for the Cabinet formation process, especially with regard to the distribution of portfolios and affirmation of complete partnership between them in accordance with Article 53 in the Constitution,” said a statement issued after the bloc’s weekly electronic meeting chaired by Bassil.

The statement said that Article 53 of the Constitution “states clearly that the Cabinet formation is done in agreement between the president and the prime minister-designate.”

The Cabinet impasse comes as Lebanon is wrestling with an economic meltdown, caused by decades of corruption and mismanagement, and the collapsing Lebanese pound that has lost more than 80 percent of its value since last year, putting half of the 6 million Lebanese population below poverty line. Lebanon is also grappling with the grave consequences of the port blast that killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands, left 300,000 people homeless and caused losses worth billions of dollars, as well as an alarming surge in coronavirus infections.

The country is also facing the threat of social instability when state subsidies for essential commodities are lifted in around one month.

This article has been adapted from its original source.