In a nation adrift, ‘betrayed’ by politicians, Lebanese flee
The Maronite patriarch attacks those who are deliberately preventing the election of the president and the formation of a new government. For judges, on strike for two months, what the country is going through is not a “crisis” but a real “disaster”. Many people want to emigrate, legally or not.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – In December 2020, former French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian compared Lebanon's situation "to the sinking of the Titanic, but without the orchestra.”
Twenty-one months later, the rotting of government institutions, the perversity of certain political players, endemic corruption, and the looting of public resources are depriving the Lebanese of the most basic services, with two hours of power per day in some regions, and an average public sector salary of no more than US$ 40 per month.
In such a climate of decay, marked by a judges’ strike, Lebanon is moving into the final phase for the election of a new president. Under the constitution, the final stretch began last Thursday, 1 September, two months before the end of President Michel Aoun's term (31 October).
So far, House Speaker Nabih Berry has yet to set a date for a vote, since the president and prime minister have failed to agree on a new government after the mandate of the outgoing cabinet ended in May.
Fearing that Lebanon will find itself without a president and with a caretaker government, an unprecedented political vacuum that could justify the worst excesses, the Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi issued a stern warning yesterday, addressed to the country’s political leaders.
For the prelate, it would be a treason that the presidential vote is deliberately torpedoed by the camp whose candidate could not be assured of being elected. In his view, this “betrayal” lies in (and worsened by) the perverse game consisting in torpeding the (need to obtain a) qualified majority of two thirds in parliament (85 votes out of 128).
“We consider that an intentionally provoked presidential vacancy is a conspiracy against the function of the Office of the President in the Republic. It is even a betrayal of Lebanon," said the Maronite patriarch.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s justice system has come to a halt in the past two months. Like other groups and public sector workers, judges have joined a strike for decent wages and better working conditions.
In a statement signed by the “Judges of Lebanon”, magistrates express their dissatisfaction with the August salaries, which “are worth anywhere between US$ 95 and US$ 235, depending on the exchange rate of the day.”
The judges rightly accuse politicians of “wrongly describing" the current situation as a “crisis”, when in fact it is only a “disaster”.
At the Courts of Justice (Palais de Justice), “There is no paper or ink or pens or envelopes or functioning bathrooms or even running water,” bemoaned Judge Faysal Makki, cited by Agence France Presse, in an eloquent description of the situation.
It is likely that other government departments and agencies are in the same situation. As a result, more and more Lebanese are tempted to just leave. Those who cannot do it legally try illegal routes.
In Tripoli (northern Lebanon), residents every day see boats leave the coast with migrants on board; sometimes, even with the complicity of the coast guard, some claim.
On Sunday, 70 Lebanese migrants on a broken-down boat were reported off the Maltese and Italian coasts by Tripoli MP Ashraf Rifi, who appealed to Italy, a “friend of Lebanon", to rescue these migrants, who are almost out of food and water.
Last April, a boat carrying illegal migrants sank off Tripoli with some 80 people on board, with scores of deaths and missing.
An underwater craft that arrived in Lebanon in late August found the wreck, but left the country without releasing its findings, aware that an investigation is seeking to determine if, as some survivors claim, the Lebanese Navy tasked with intercepting the migrants rammed the boat, accidentally or intentionally, causing it to sink.
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11/08/2017 20:05
10/09/2021 17:17
