Lebanon reopens, but crisis remains after PM resigns
BEIRUT: The resignation of Lebanon’s government under pressure from the street looked set to ease a two-week-old nationwide lockdown, but protesters vowed to keep pushing for deeper change.
President Michel Aoun acknowledged Saad Hariri’s resignation as prime minister yesterday, but asked his government to continue on a caretaker basis until a new Cabinet was formed.
But there was no clear way out of the political crisis that has drawn warnings from Lebanon’s foreign partners.
On the ground, security forces reopened several roads that had remained mostly blocked by protesters ever since a proposed tax on calls via messaging apps sparked a wave of demonstrations on Oct 17.
The unprecedented mobilisation swelled into a popular drive to remove a political elite which has remained largely unchanged since the end of the civil war three decades ago.
Euphoric protesters experiencing a rare moment of national unity have pilloried politicians of all parties, calling for better public services, an end to rampant corruption and a complete overhaul of sectarian-based politics.
When a sombre Hariri appeared on television on Tuesday to announce his resignation, crowds erupted into celebrations across the country but warned that the government’s fall was only one of their demands.
“The resignation is not enough to get us off the streets,” said Charbel, a 26-year-old draped in a Lebanese flag, who was still protesting in central Beirut yesterday.
“We need to keep up the pressure, but we should not keep the roads closed because now it’s bothering even the people who were supporting the movement.”
Hariri’s resignation came after counter-demonstrators loyal to some of his political rivals attacked the main protest site in the capital’s Martyr’s Square.
They destroyed tents and marquees and the rest of the temporary infrastructure that has turned downtown Beirut into a huge encampment – hosting protests and political meetings by day, concerts and parties by night.
But well-organised protesters swiftly cleaned up and returned to the site, occupying the main flyover again on Tuesday evening.
By yesterday, having won the government’s resignation, protesters were divided over the decision to remove roadblocks, which they see as one of the few sources of leverage for their leaderless and spontaneous movement.
The resignation came after the failure of days of consultations with his fractious cabinet to agree on a reshuffle and meet some of the protesters’ demands for a technocratic government.
Early in the protests, Hariri had hinted that resigning was an option but his rivals in the government coalition, including Aoun’s party and its allies from the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah, had warned that a political vacuum could lead to chaos.
Hariri’s suggestions were rejected by Aoun, whose son-in-law Gebran Bassil is the outgoing foreign minister and one of the most reviled figures among the protesters.
Forming a government in Lebanon can typically take months, with every sectarian and party leader seeking to protect their own communal interests.