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MEOG POLICY MEOG

Lebanon’s government resigns

amid unrest over port explosion

LEBANON LEBANON’S government resigned on August announced less than two months after taking
10, after days of nationwide protests following office that Lebanon would default on its debts.
last week’s massive explosion in Beirut. Lockdowns imposed to contain the coro-
Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab navirus initially took protesters off the streets.
announced his resignation almost a week after But Lebanon’s financial situation continued to
the blast, which flattened most of the capital’s worsen and many businesses were forced to lay
port and surrounding area. It left some 200 off staff or put them on furlough without pay,
people dead and wounded 6,000 others. It was aggravating unemployment. Prices continued
caused by the detonation of 2,750 tonnes of to rise, leaving many families unable to afford
ammonium nitrate, stored unsafely at the port basic necessities. Meanwhile, negotiations with
for years. The disaster has stoked public anger, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a
sparking nationwide protests against authorities bailout became deadlocked.
over years of economic mismanagement and Soon enough, protests were back with a
rampant corruption. vengeance.

Economic tailspin What next?
Diab took office in January after months of dead- Announcing his resignation on national televi-
lock, standing on a platform of reform. But his sion, Diab sought to direct blame for Lebanon’s
government has faced a series of major protests woes towards years of rampant corruption and
since then, as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pan- the actions of the “long-ruling class.”
demic has put further pressure on an economy His government, he said, had “gone to great
already deep in crisis. lengths to lay out a road map to save the country.”
Even before pandemic, Lebanon’s public But corruption in Lebanon is “bigger than the
debt-to-gross domestic product was the third state itself,” he said, and “a very thick and thorny
highest in the world, while its unemployment wall separates us from change; a wall fortified by
rate was 25%. Nearly a third of the country’s a class that is resorting to all dirty methods in
population was estimated to be living in poverty. order to resist and preserve its gains.”
For many years the central bank ran what “They knew that we pose a threat to them and
many experts have described as a Ponzi scheme, that the success of this government means a real
borrowing increasing amounts to pay back exist- change in this long-ruling class whose corrup-
ing debts. This system finally became unsustain- tion has asphyxiated the country,” he went on.
able last year and collapsed. “Today we follow the will of the people in their
Against this backdrop, the state found itself demand to hold accountable those responsible
struggling to provide even basic services such as for the disaster that has been hiding for seven
electricity. Anger was mostly directed towards years, and their desire for real change.”
the ruling elite, seen as having profiteered Parliament will now have to decide on a new
for years while the rest of the population has prime minister, which will be no easy process
struggled. given the country’s deeply-rooted sectarian
Meanwhile, the Lebanese pound has shed politics. Lebanon’s three main political offices –
more than 80% of its value since October 2019, president, speaker of parliament and PM – are
while banking restrictions have led to for- divided among the country’s three biggest com-
eign currency shortages, driving up the cost of munities, Maronite Christian, Shia Muslim and
imports. Sunni Muslim. Meanwhile the 128 seats in its
The previous Western-backed government parliament are split equally between Christians
led by PM Saad Hariri also increased taxes on and Muslims.
tobacco, gasoline, while introducing a contro- The process is also likely to be influenced by
versial levy on the WhatsApp messaging app, in external actors such as Iran, which backs the
an effort to raise funds. It was forced to roll back powerful Shia Hezbollah movement in Lebanon,
these measures after they triggered another wave and Saudi Arabia, which has supported Sunni
of mass protests. But this was not enough to quell political groups in the country.
the unrest and Hariri tendered his resignation in Diab’s successor will face the extreme chal-
late October. lenge of bringing Lebanon’s economy back from
Faced with an economy in tailspin, Diab the brink.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 32 12•August•2020