a country adrift, ‘betrayed’ by politicians. Citizens on the run

The Maronite patriarch attacked those who deliberately obstruct the election of the president and the formation of the government. The magistrates, who have been on strike for two months, affirm that the country is not experiencing a “crisis” but rather a real “failure”. Many want to emigrate, legally or clandestinely.

Beirut () – In December 2020, the former French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, compared the situation in Lebanon to “the sinking of the Titanic, but without an orchestra”. A year and a half later, the state of decomposition of the institutions, the perverse action of a sector of the political class, the endemic corruption and the looting of public resources are depriving the Lebanese of essential services. In some regions, electricity is only supplied for two hours a day, while the average salary in the public sector does not exceed an average of 40 euros per month.

In this climate of decline, which is also reflected in the magistrates’ strike, Lebanon has entered the term established by the Constitution for the election of the new President of the Republic, which began on September 1, two months before the end officially the mandate of the head of state Michel Aoun, on October 31. The speaker of the House of Representatives, Nabih Berry, has not yet set a date for the voting session, knowing on the other hand that the president and the prime minister have failed to agree on a new government since the term of the outgoing executive expired in May.

Fearing that Lebanon could find itself without a head of state and with a resigning government – an unprecedented situation that could be interpreted as a total vacuum at the level of executive power and justify worse consequences – the Maronite patriarch yesterday issued a harsh warning to the politics. The cardinal did not hesitate to define as “a betrayal” the fact that the elections are deliberately obstructed by the faction that expresses a candidate who has very little chance of being elected. This stagnation is caused by systematically preventing two-thirds in the Chamber (85 votes out of 128) from being reached, in a game that many observers describe as perverse. “We believe that an intentionally caused presidential vacancy – said Cardinal Beshara Raï – is a conspiracy against what the role of the President of the Republic represents and is also a betrayal of Lebanon”.

At the same time, justice and law are no longer exercised in Lebanon. Like many other sectors and public services, the Judiciary decided two months ago to suspend all activities demanding decent wages and better working conditions. In a statement signed as “The judges of Lebanon”, the magistrates expressed their dissatisfaction with the salaries received in August, which are worth “between 95 and 235 euros depending on the exchange rate of the day”. With well-founded reasons, the magistrates accuse politicians of “being wrong” when they speak of “crisis” to describe the current situation, because in reality it is a real “failure.”

In an eloquent document that clearly expresses their situation, AFP quotes magistrate Fayçal Makki, who declared that in the Palace of Justice “there is no paper, no ink, no pens, no envelopes, no working toilets and not even running water” And they suspect that this situation is repeated in all government departments and public offices.

Given the situation, many Lebanese want to leave the country. Those who cannot do it legally, try it clandestinely. Every day, Tripoli residents say, numerous boats leave the coast loaded with migrants; sometimes, when the need requires it, with the complicity of the coast guards themselves. Yesterday Tripoli MP Achraf Rifi reported that 70 Lebanese immigrants were stranded aboard a damaged boat off the Maltese and Italian coasts. He asked the authorities in Rome for help, recalling that Italy is a “friendly country of Lebanon”, to rescue migrants whose food and water supplies are running out.

And last April, a boat with about 80 illegal immigrants on board had already capsized off the coast of Tripoli (Lebanon-North), leaving dozens dead and missing. A group of experts that arrived in Lebanon at the end of August left the country without publishing any report on the findings of their mission. A new setback, because everyone knew that their objective was to try to determine the causes of the sinking. According to the testimony of some survivors, this would have been caused by the military ship in charge of rejecting the migrants, which supposedly -accidentally or deliberately- hit the boat, causing the shipwreck.