Editorial of the “World”. Political, economic, financial and henceforth humanitarian, the crisis which strikes Lebanon is the most serious since the civil war of the years 1975-1990. This time, the violence does not come from the bombs, but from the overwhelming downgrading that strikes the six million inhabitants of the former “Switzerland of the Middle East”.
Eighteen months after the start of a long and futile popular mobilization against the confiscation of power by a cartel of community parties, nine months after the tragic explosion in the port of Beirut, the country of the Cedar is no more than a shadow of himself. More than half of its population lives below the poverty line. Lebanon, long classified in the upper bracket of middle-income states, has joined the category of poor countries.
This disaster is not natural. It results from a political system in the terminal phase, whose founding ideal, the fair representation of communities, has been reduced to a vulgar obsession, the sharing of the cake. Clientelism has swallowed up the state, paralyzing all public action. A prisoner of these grocer’s calculations, Saad Hariri, appointed prime minister in October 2020, has still not formed a government.
Obviously, the politico-economic oligarchy chooses decay, it is betting on the weariness of the historical friend, France. In August, in the wake of the explosion of the port of Beirut, Emmanuel Macron tried to shake up the inertia of the system, by giving his barons two weeks to form a government of experts, determined to reform the country. But this voluntarism has come up against a regime from which the idea of collective interest has disappeared. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, admittedly announced, Thursday April 29, sanctions against Lebanese personalities “Involved in the current political blockage or in corruption”, which would take the form of restrictions on access to French territory.
Change gear
The announcement does not specify either the identity of those responsible or the precise nature of the sanctions, which singularly limits their deterrent scope, as well as the French nationality held by some Lebanese leaders. Moreover, the blockade opposed by Viktor Orban’s Hungary to European Union-wide sanctions could make it possible to bypass Paris sanctions and enter France via another country in the Schengen area.
If Emmanuel Macron wants to remain faithful to the solemn promises of solidarity made to the Lebanese, he must change gear. This involves the publication of the list of penalized persons and the freezing of doubtful assets they own in France. Requests from the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office in favor of opening a judicial investigation in Paris after complaints from two NGOs for “ill-gotten gains” against Riad Salamé, governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, would constitute another signal.
Mr. Le Drian’s visit to Beirut on Thursday, May 6, should also be an opportunity to reformulate the Elysée’s roadmap. Let us stop imagining that the Lebanese parties will one day agree to saw the branch on which they are sitting. The international community must push for the formation of a cabinet with exceptional legislative powers, as the country experienced in the 1960s and 1970s. Only such an executive will have sufficient independence to pass the reforms essential to the rescue. from Lebanon.
