The Maronite Patriarch of Lebanon denounces a “plot” to “cause a constitutional vacuum”

Dec. 24 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Maronite patriarch of Lebanon, Beshara al Rai, has denounced this Saturday the existence of “a plot” against the country destined to “cause a presidential vacuum and a constitutional vacuum”, after Parliament has failed ten times an hour to elect the replacement for the president, Michel Aoun, whose term expired on October 31.

“All the political indications confirm the existence of a plot against Lebanon aimed at causing a presidential vacuum, accompanied by a constitutional vacuum, which is increasingly complicating the election of a president,” he said during his traditional Christmas message.

Thus, he has stated that “some political groups blocked the formation of a government before the end of Aoun’s term despite the fact that they knew that the Executive had resigned and was in office, which would cause problems when specifying its role”. according to the Lebanese news portal Naharnet.

Al Rai stressed that the Maronite patriarchate “is determined to continue its struggle and its efforts within Lebanon and with the Arab and international community to speed up the presidential elections”, before stressing that “the regional conflict is damaging these efforts, as that some want a president for themselves, not for Lebanon”.

The words of the Maronite patriarch have come a few days after the acting Prime Minister of Lebanon, Nayib Mikati, stated that several foreign countries are “preparing” a solution to the political crisis that the country is going through. “Things take time,” he explained.

The Lebanese Parliament, divided between the bloc headed by the Shiite party-militia Hezbollah and its opponents — with neither having a clear majority — closed its tenth session last week without managing to elect the country’s new president. The next one is scheduled to take place in 2023.

To be elected, the president must obtain the support of two thirds of the parliamentarians –86 of the 128– in the first round or an absolute majority in the event that more votes have to be held, as contemplated in article 49 of the Lebanese constitution. Aoun was elected president in 2016 after almost fifty parliamentary sessions that lasted for two and a half years.

Lebanon has been trapped for several years in a deep and prolonged political, economic and social crisis that has caused more than 70 percent of the population to live below the poverty line and a banking system that has been paralyzed since October 2019.