PM pick angers Lebanon protesters
•Safadi’s nomination regarded as provocation •Hospitals on the verge of collapse, warn medics
Lebanese protesters who have been demanding radical reform reacted with anger on Friday to the reported designation of a new prime minister they regard as emblematic of a failed political system.
According to senior officials and Lebanese press reports, key political players agreed that Mohammed Safadi should be tasked with forming the next government. Demonstrators in his hometown of Tripoli wasted no time in rejecting Safadi, however, and gathered in front of one of his properties to protest against a reported nomination they regard as a provocation.
“Choosing Mohammed Safadi for prime minister proves that the politicians who rule us are in a deep coma, as if they were on another planet,” said Jamal Badawi, 60. Another protester said that as a business tycoon and former minister, Safadi was an embodiment of the kind of political class the protest movement wants to remove.
“He’s an integral part of this leadership’s fabric,” said Samer Anous, a university professor. “Safadi does not meet the aspirations of the popular uprising in Lebanon.”
Ziad Abdel Samad, a civil society activist, told Arab News: “We’re still not sure how serious the leaks are about nominating … Mohammed Safadi as prime minister.”
Ghassan Hajjar, managing editor at An-Nahar newspaper, tweeted: “It seems like the authority has become an expert in turning people against it.”
The army meanwhile arrested 20 demonstrators on Friday after soldiers were targeted as they attempted to reopen roads closed by protesters. Nine were later released, seven were held for questioning and four were transferred to the military police. Released protesters said they were severely beaten. Lawyers gathered in front of the Palace of Justice to object to the arrests and the prevention of those arrested from contacting a lawyer before the interrogations.
Doctors and nurses raised placards that read “we are on the verge of collapse and our situation is critical” in front of hospital entrances.
Medical staff were protesting to warn of “a health nightmare that the country has never seen before, even in the most heinous days of the civil war,” said Suleiman Haroun, president of the Syndicate of Private Hospitals.
“Importers can’t import medical supplies due to the lack of liquidity, as hospitals are facing a financial crisis and banks continue to impose restrictions on dollar transfers abroad, even for importation.” Lebanese authorities are “facing a real crisis as a result of their failure to find solutions or to form a government to save the country,” Haroun said.