Lebanon: the new government of Najib Mikati obtains the confidence of the Parliament

Published on : 09/20/2021 – 20:53

The Lebanese Parliament, meeting in plenary session, gave its confidence to the new government headed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose main mission will be to stop the collapse of the country of the Cedar, in the midst of economic collapse.

After reviewing the government’s action plan in an eight-hour marathon session, 85 MPs put their trust in the new ministerial team, while 15 voted against, according to the tally spelled out by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

The 24-member government led by Najib Mikati, one of the nation’s greatest fortunes, was formed on September 10, after 13 months of political vacuum. The country had been without a new government since the resignation of the cabinet of Hassan Diab in the wake of the devastating explosion at the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020.

This delay worsened the economic crisis, which the World Bank called one of the worst in the world since 1850.

The meeting, in which Najib Mikati presented his government’s program ahead of the vote, was scheduled to start at 11 a.m. local time (8 a.m. GMT) but was delayed by about an hour due to a power cut, has Parliament Secretary General Adnane Daher told AFP.

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Videos circulating on social media showed MPs gathered in a courtyard outside the building awaiting the restoration of power and the resumption of the session.

“It’s embarrassing (…) This country is not one,” MP Teymour Joumblatt told a journalist while the head of Parliament, Nabih Berri, urged the Prime Minister to go quickly in his speech for fear of another cut.

In recent months, power cuts have reached up to 22 hours a day in some areas, forcing even generator owners to ration their production as fuel becomes scarce.

A large part of the population accuses the political class considered corrupt and incompetent to be at the origin of the financial collapse of the country. The authorities are mostly accused of patronage and embezzlement in the electricity sector, which has cost the state more than $ 40 billion since the end of the civil war in 1990.

Among the countless challenges, the new government will have to quickly reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an essential step for a way out of the crisis.

Before Parliamentarians, Najib Mikati pledged to resume negotiations with the institution and “to develop a plan to revive the economy”.

The new cabinet will also have to prepare the ground for the legislative elections scheduled for May 2022.

With AFP