Lebanese President Michel Aoun began parliamentary consultations on Thursday morning to nominate a new prime minister, more than a month after legislative elections that saw mixed blocs enter parliament.
The President of the Republic is usually appointed by the person who received the largest number of votes of deputies. It is likely that the current prime minister and billionaire Najib Mikati, who enjoys the support of the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc, the country’s powerful political force, will be renamed.
Hezbollah and its allies lost their parliamentary majority in May’s parliamentary elections, but neither party won an absolute majority. Parliament saw the entry of 13 new MPs for the first time as a result of a popular protest movement that took place in the fall of 2019 against the ruling class and political activity characterized by corruption and compromise. At present, the parliament consists of heterogeneous bloc groups.
And at ten o’clock in the morning (07:00 GMT), the Presidium of the Republic announced “the start of parliamentary consultations on the nomination of a presidential candidate to form a government at Baabda Palace”, the headquarters of the Presidium of the Republic. Republic. It is expected that it will last until about five o’clock in the afternoon (14:00 GMT).
Some of the new MPs, referred to as “changers”, have announced that they will name former Ambassador Nawaf Salam, who has not issued any position or statement about the appointment. He also named the opposition Phalanx Party bloc (4 MPs) and the Socialist Party bloc led by Druze leader Walid Jumblat (opposition, 8 MPs), who met with President Nawaf Salam before noon. The opposition Lebanese Forces party announced that it would not name anyone. Its block includes 19 deputies. After his meetings with the parliamentary blocs are over, Aoun will meet with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and announce the name of the appointed prime minister.
The post of prime minister belongs to the Sunni sect in the country, whose political system is based on the distribution of key posts between sects. Mikati’s name is often put forward as a consensus candidate during political crises in the country. During his political career, Mikati has held several ministerial positions and led the government three times (in 2005, from 2011 to 2013 and from 2021 to 2022).
It is assumed that after his appointment, the new prime minister will begin authorial consultations, meeting with parliamentary blocs in the parliament building. This is a consultation that usually precedes difficult negotiations with political parties and personalities. Forming a government in Lebanon often takes many months due to political differences. The new government is required to complete efforts to bring the country out of the spiral of accelerating economic collapse within nearly three years and begin implementing the measures set by the International Monetary Fund as a condition of aid to Lebanon.
Last July, Aoun directed Mikati to form a government after a year in which two other attempts failed. It took Mikati until September to announce his government, whose main task is to negotiate with the IMF and organize legislative elections. In April, Mikati’s government reached a tentative agreement with the International Monetary Fund as a first step to bring Lebanon out of an economic crisis that the World Bank has described as one of the worst in the world since the middle of the last century.
However, the $3 billion four-year aid plan remains the subject of previous reforms. More than eighty percent of the Lebanese population lives below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate has reached almost thirty percent. The Lebanese pound has lost over ninety percent of its value against the dollar.
