ANSD : Same trio of troubles await Hariri on govt formation

FRI 19 - 4 - 2024

Date: Jun 19, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Same trio of troubles await Hariri on govt formation

_{Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star}
BEIRUT: When Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri returns to Beirut Tuesday from visits to Russia and Saudi Arabia, he will have to grapple with the same three major hurdles delaying the formation of a new government, official and parliamentary sources said Monday.

Hariri’s imminent return comes as Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is getting ready to leave Beirut on vacation to Italy with his family over the weekend, ruling out an early breakthrough in Cabinet formation efforts.

“Prime Minister Hariri is encountering three major hurdles in his attempts to form a new government. These are the Christian representation, the Druze representation and the representation of independent Sunni lawmakers not affiliated with the Future Movement,” a parliamentary source told The Daily Star.

“Furthermore, Hezbollah, boosted by the results of parliamentary elections, is demanding an essential ministry dealing with public services, such as the Health Ministry,” the source said, adding that Berri had promised Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah to support this demand during a recent meeting.

MP Wael Abu Faour, from the Progressive Socialist Party’s parliamentary Democratic Gathering bloc headed by newly elected MP Teymour Joumblatt, said the PSP insisted on being allotted the Health Ministry as part of three ministerial posts reserved for the Druze in a 30-member Cabinet.

“We have demanded the Health Ministry and we insist on this demand,” Abu Faour, a former health minister, told Al-Jadeed TV Monday night. “The issue of the Druze representation [in government] is not a matter of guarantee, but if there is someone who wants to override the results of the elections, then there will be a problem,” he said.

Abu Faour accused the Free Patriotic Movement, headed by caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, of taking more posts in the government and the public administration and more powers than its parliamentary size allowed.

He defended demands by the Lebanese Forces, which aligned with the PSP in the Aley-Chouf district in the May 6 elections, to obtain key ministerial posts commensurate with its parliamentary representation.

Abu Faour’s remarks came two days after the PSP and the FPM had reached a truce ending a fierce war of words during the Eid al-Fitr holiday that threatened to negatively affect the Cabinet formation process.A political source linked PSP leader Walid Joumblatt’s negative tweet last week against President Michel Aoun’s term, which triggered responses from caretaker ministers affiliated with the FPM, to attempts by Bassil to name MP Talal Arslan, Joumblatt’s Druze rival, as a minister in the new government.

Aoun and Bassil were reported to be insisting on naming Arslan, currently minister for the displaced in Hariri’s caretaker Cabinet, as a minister in the new government.

Joumblatt has demanded that the Democratic Gathering bloc obtain the three ministerial posts reserved for the Druze in a 30-member Cabinet.

His demand has been perceived as an attempt to prevent Arslan from being named a minister in the new government.

Arslan has insisted on being represented with one Druze minister.

A source at Baabda Palace confirmed that the struggle between the FPM and the LF over Christian representation, the problem of Druze representation and the representation of independent Sunni lawmakers who are not affiliated with the Future Movement are presenting Hariri with obstacles that could delay the Cabinet formation.

The source denied reports that Aoun had rejected Hariri’s preliminary proposal to form a 30-member government representing all of the main political parties.

In the proposal, which he presented to the president earlier this month, Hariri outlined the Cabinet shares among the blocs with the largest representation based on the results of the elections.

His move was seen as aiming to accelerate the Cabinet formation.

“The president has neither rejected nor accepted Hariri’s proposal, which is still being scrutinized,” the source told The Daily Star, adding that the two leaders were still consulting on the proposal.

Hariri, who was designated on May 24 with a sweeping parliamentary majority to form a government for the third time, has pleaded with rival factions, competing for key ministerial posts, to lower their demands.

Hariri was reported to have said that he would name the six Sunni ministers in the new government, rejecting demands from independent Sunni lawmakers to obtain ministerial posts.

Berri is set to travel to Italy with his family at the weekend for a vacation that will not last more than five days, after which he will return to Beirut, the Central News Agency reported, quoting sources close to the speaker.

The report quoted visitors to Berri as saying that he ruled out the formation of a government soon, even though he had told Hariri of the need to speed up the Cabinet formation.

Al-Liwaa newspaper also quoted Berri as saying that the Cabinet formation consultations were at a “standstill.”

Newly elected MP Wehbi Qatisha from the Lebanese Forces’ Strong Republic bloc reiterated the bloc’s demand for significant representation in the new government based on the results of the elections, in which the LF increased its parliamentary representation from eight to 15 MPs.

“We insist on our right to weighty representation in the government based on the results we achieved in the parliamentary elections,” Qatisha said in an interview with the Central News Agency.

“Why do some insist on depriving us from specific ministries while they do not follow this matter with other political forces?” he added.

He recalled that the 2016 Maarab understanding signed by Aoun and LF chief Samir Geagea that eventually led to Aoun’s election as president, “clearly called for the [LF’s] representation in governments [formed in Aoun’s] term both in quantity and quality.”

Geagea said last week the LF wanted the same number of ministerial portfolios as the FPM in the new government.

The FPM also made gains in the elections, increasing its 21 MPs to 29, including allies.

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