The still president of Lebanon, Michel Aoun, has said goodbye this Sunday to his office, 24 hours before the official end of his mandate, signing the letter of resignation of the current government, a symbolic gesture by which he intends to remove the Prime Minister-designate, Nayib Mikati, any kind of competence to assume part of the powers of the Presidency, now vacant in the absence of a successor, in the middle of the suffocating political and economic crisis that the country is going through.
«This morning, I sent a letter to Parliament with the signature of the decree of resignation of the outgoing Council of Ministers of Nayib Mikati,» announced the veteran politician, 89, in his farewell speech at the Baabda Presidential Palace on the outskirts of Beirut.
It should be recalled that the government resigned since the end of the previous legislature, with the election in May of a new Parliament. However, the missive is a rather blunt attack on the legitimacy of Mikati’s current functions.
Indeed, Aoun’s favorite to succeed him as president, Gebran Bassil, his son-in-law, on Saturday accused Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri of making plans for the post-Aoun era to «auction off» the president’s remaining powers. Mikati, by contrast, claims he has no intention of making any decision that would contravene the country’s constitution.
In his letter, Aoun calls for the emergency convening of a session of Parliament within three days to read out his dissolution decree in the hope of speeding up negotiations to find a replacement for him. Without a president, laws passed in the chamber cannot take effect, nor can a prime minister be appointed, nor can cabinets be approved before parliamentary ratification.
Aoun has also harshly criticized the governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salamé, indicted in March for illicit enrichment, as well as his brother Raja, accused of having organized a corrupt money laundering scheme through several companies owned by him.
The charges are part of a lawsuit accusing both brothers of embezzlement and illicit enrichment during the worst financial crisis in Lebanon’s history, one of the worst recorded globally since the mid-19th century, the World Bank said in June 2021. The case is awaiting trial.
Aoun has regretted in his speech «all the financial crimes that were committed by the governor of the Banque du Liban (BDL)», and criticized the impunity he seems to enjoy before asking «who protects him». The president also called once again for the implementation of reforms in a country he described as «plundered» and to «get rid» of the people who have blocked the investigation into the tragic explosions of August 2020 in the port of Beirut.
«The judiciary is not playing its role and the culprits are still out of court, perhaps because they are cronies of those in charge,» he added.
