Less than a week after the resignation of Saad Hariri, the demonstrators expected to defend the power in place, subject of very strong challenges for two weeks.
Thousands of people participated Sunday, November 3, in a rally near Beirut in support of President Michel Aoun, confronted for more than two weeks to an unprecedented popular uprising against the entire Lebanese ruling class. Protests against power are planned in the afternoon in the heart of the capital.
In Baabda, a small town south-east of the capital, several thousand people gathered in the morning on the road leading to the presidential palace, waving Lebanese flags and the orange flags in the colors of Mr. Aoun's party, the Free Patriotic Current (CPL).
"I call everyone to the union"A little later, Michel Aoun launched a short speech from the inside of the palace, broadcasted on screens outside and picked up by televisions. "We have set up a road map" to fight corruption, restore the economy and establish a civil status, recalled the president. "We need your efforts. "
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced the resignation of his government. Since then, Lebanon has hesitated between returning to normal and continuing the challenge. Friday 1st November, banks reopened and traffic resumed as usual.
"The president is not responsible"
Sunday morning, for the pro-Aoun demonstration, some participants were dressed in orange, others wore portraits of the 84-year-old president. "We are here, General! We will not leave you as long as we livecould you read on a sign? Still others have defended the record of the head of state, a former general who once headed the Lebanese army.
"General Aoun is a reformist and sincere man. He is neither a bribe nor a thief. We are here to tell him "we are with you and we will stay with you no matter what happens" "Agence France-Presse told a protester, Diana. "There has been corruption in the state for thirty years, (But) the president is not responsible for it, he tries to fight against corruption "assured the forty-year-old.
Participants denounced the anti-power protesters, who demanded the departure of President Aoun, while saying they shared the demands of the challenge – reforms and fight against corruption – and that the head of state was the only one who could concretize them. With his allies, including the Hezbollah Shiite movement, the formation of Michel Aoun dominates Parliament.
The anti-power demonstrations expected in Beirut on Sunday are organized under the slogan "Sunday of unity". Saturday evening, already, several thousand people gathered in Tripoli, the big city of the North where the protest does not weaken. The gathering attracted Lebanese from all over the country.
