Tug of war between premier and central bank as revolt reignites

Yesterday in Tripoli, in a clash between demonstrators and the army, there was one dead and 39 wounded, including 4 soldiers. The demonstrators are perhaps mercenaries. Opposition launches attack -  former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Party, Walid Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party, Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces - against Hassan Diab's government. The governor Riad Salame considered "protector of the corrupt."

Beirut (AsiaNews) – The incinerated carcasses of two army vehicles set, looted shop windows, banks set on fire, glass shards, bloodstains: these are the signs that the city of Tripoli bear this morning, after the clashes between the army and demonstrators.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, protests sparked by the economic crisis have returned to the streets of Tripoli and other cities, such as in Sunni Sidon, in some streets of Beirut, in the Sunni area of ​​the Bekaa. The toll in Tripoli is one dead and 39 injured, including 4 soldiers. The protesters resorted to Molotov glass bottles, the military - who came to enforce social distancing - used real and not rubber bullets.

Taking advantage of the coronavirus emergency, the new government had cleared the center of Beirut, the hub of anti-corruption sit-ins, but the economic crisis that has wrecked the country, with the pandemic paralysis, has only worsened.

The social distancing has caused greater misery, with increases of 100% on prices and the US dollar now trading at 4200 Lebanese pounds on the black market (before the riots in October 2019 it was traded at 1500). Yesterday the government arrested 19 black market money changers accused of speculation. But the category is in open revolt claiming it supports the free market.

Yesterday’s demonstrators were mainly young people, suspected of protesting in organized groups like mercenaries. After all, why take to the streets now, despite the risk of contamination?

Meanwhile, opposition parties - the future of ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Walid Jumblat's Progressive Socialist Party, Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces - are launching an attack on the government of technocrats of Hassan Diab and in defense of the Lebanese banking system, more likely of the governor of the Lebanese Central Bank, Riad Salame.

According to several analysts, the Diab government, even without much experience, has proven effective in the fight against Covid-19 and aims to "maintain the stability of the Lebanese currency" and "save the country's financial and economic stability". Instead, Governor Salame seems to have other intentions: a person chosen by Washington at the time, he continues to protect the personalities and parties that have impoverished the country in the past.