In Lebanon, a wealthy businessman replaces another wealthy businessman as prime minister-designate. Monday July 26, the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, entrusted this apron to Najib Mikati, telecoms magnate, already head of government twice, after the renunciation of Saad Hariri, heir to the construction empire of the same name , and himself head of government three times in the past. It’s hard to find a more perfect example of a political system at the end of the line …
Najib Mikati, 65, will have to form a new executive, likely to succeed Hassan Diab’s cabinet, which has been managing day-to-day affairs since his resignation last August, in the wake of the explosion at the port of Beirut. The return to the political center stage of the billionaire Sunni Tripoli comes as Lebanon crumbles, hit by an economic depression of unprecedented violence, classified by the World Bank among the three worst crises in the world since 1850.
Saad Hariri, who had tried to compose a government for nine months, recused himself on July 15, due to an insurmountable conflict with President Aoun and his son-in-law, former foreign minister Gebran Bassil. Before Saad Hariri, Mustapha Adib, a little-known diplomat, had also failed in this mission, which requires a very complex sharing of portfolios between religious communities.
“Eternal spare wheel”
During the consultations prior to his appointment, Najib Mikati, “Eternal spare wheel”, according to the daily L’Orient-Le Jour, received the support of 72 deputies out of 118, including those of the Sunnis of the Current of the future, the formation of Saad Hariri, and Hezbollah, the Shiite movement. In the Lebanese denominational system, the post of Prime Minister traditionally falls to a Sunni, while the office of President of the Republic is reserved for a Christian, and that of Speaker of Parliament for a Shiite.
“I don’t have a magic wand and I cannot perform miracles”, Mikati said after his appointment, while specifying that he had the “Necessary international guarantees”. He also pledged to “Implement the French initiative to save the country from collapse”, a reference to the roadmap presented in September by President Emmanuel Macron, when he came to Beirut.
This text, endorsed by all Lebanese parties, called for the formation of a mission government, made up of specialists, able to pass fundamental reforms, in particular a clearing of the financial sector, in full bankruptcy. These measures are demanded by Lebanon’s donors, before any release of the billions of dollars in development aid that were promised to the country of the Cedar, during a conference held in Paris, in 2018.
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