BEIRUT: Lebanese politicians expressed support Sunday for the anti-corruption demonstrations this weekend that brought tens of thousands of Lebanese together to protest the trash crisis.

Martyrs’ Square was packed with demonstrators supporting the “You Stink” campaign to hold the government accountable for its failure to deal with the garbage issue.

Nouhad MachnoukUsing hash tags “to the street,” “we will continue,” “what are you waiting for,” “we want accountability” and “you stink,” Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk sent tweets about the protest.

“A salute to the Internal Security Forces, which is from you, to you and to protect you,” Machnouk tweeted. “A salute to all the peaceful protestors and the protest’s organizers, a salute to the beautiful Beirut with its civilized protest today [Saturday] despite the insistence of a few to distort this image.”

Earlier Saturday, Machnouk headed a meeting for the Central Security Council to make sure the protest would pass smoothly without a recurrence of last weekend’s violence.

Machnouk said in another tweet that the result of an investigation into last Saturday’s violent incidents would be announced Wednesday.

Nabih BerriSpeaking on the 37th anniversary of the disappearance of Shiite Imam Sayyed Musa Sadr, Parliament Speak Nabih Berri asked protesters to call for a civil state.

“The problem with this system [the current one] is sectarianism and deprivation,” Berri said.

“We stress our support for the government and its operation to respond to these demands.”

Future MovementThe Movement praised Saturday’s protests. “The presence of civil society today in Martyrs’ Square confirms that we were all with their hopes and ambitions,” a statement issued by the movement said.

Future said that the lingering presidential vacuum was responsible for the crisis gripping the country.

“It’s a responsibility that we all must bear,” the statement added. “The rise of a modern civilian state in Lebanon is a basic right of Lebanese youth.”

It called the political factions to listen to the voice of the youth and elect a president as well as launch a reform campaign to offer a solution to change the lives of citizens.

Mohammad MachnoukDespite calls by protesters for his resignation due to his failure to find a solution to the lingering trash crisis, Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk said he would not resign.

Machnouk said over the weekend that he would not abandon his responsibilities at this delicate stage, telling the daily newspaper that he was not the only one responsible for the crisis.

Machnouk stressed that he wasn’t against the demonstrators.

“The resignation of the Cabinet is out of the question for all political powers because it means leaping into vacuum and chaos,” the minister said.

The solution, Machnouk said, begins with electing a president.

HezbollahFollowing the protest, Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad said Sunday the people had a right to protest, and that his party was committed to providing citizens with their needs.

“Whoever thinks that our preoccupation with fighting takfri groups and preparing against an aggressive war Israel wants to impose on us one day distracts us from our people’s concerns – electricity, water and garbage as well as unfair decisions and laws and bloated bureaucratic management overwhelmed by theft and bribery – is mistaken,” Raad said during a ceremony in the southern town of Bazourieh.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Fneish said Hezbollah supports peaceful protests demanding political reform.

“We support anyone who protests to express his anger ... this is a legitimate and constitutional right and no one has the right to confront protesters as long as the movement is peaceful,” Fneish said during a ceremony in the southern town of al-Mjadel.

“Instead, security forces should protect the demonstrations from those who infiltrate [the protest] to provoke trouble,” he said.

Fneish also supported calls for “regime change and a revolution and all these beautiful slogans.”

Walid Jumblatt“Most of the slogans are righteous, but how to implement them must be studied,” Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt said Sunday in a tweet.

Jumblatt advised You Stink officials to “carefully consider the issue in order to prevent [political] parties – all parties without exception – from exploiting this spontaneous action and aborting it because yesterday’s [Saturday’s] protest, contrary to last week’s, expressed citizens’ real pains.”

Michel AounHead of Free Patriotic Movement Michel Aoun addressed the protestors in tweets Saturday and Sunday.

“You will not be free from those you are protesting against today except by electing a president directly by the people,” Aoun said.

“They generalize corruption and they forget that they’re from this whole,” he tweeted.

Beshara RaiMaronite Patriarch Beshara Rai lambasted Lebanese politicians Sunday for their self-centered attitudes.

“The tragic state that we have reached in Lebanon is a result of the outbreak of material, political and ethical consumer mentality at the expense of forming a capable state with constitutional and public institutions,” Rai said.

The inability of politicians to elect a president has led to paralysis and negative implications for the Parliament and Cabinet.

This has also led to more crime, instability, corruption and chaos, he said, arguing these were the root causes of the demonstrations.

“It’s not possible and it’s not okay to undermine the demands of the protests with false means, and not for it [the demonstration] to divert from its main goal and that’s calling on the state to practice noble politics based on truth, justice and impartiality,” Rai explained.

Rashid Derbas“Many of those who participated in the movement in Downtown Beirut were able to come out of their sectarian clothes and carry non-sectarian slogans,” Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said, according to Elnashra.

Derbas said that protesters should call on the political class to find a solution to the waste crisis before all of Lebanon becomes a landfill.

“Calling on Environment Minister [Mohammad Machnouk] to resign isn’t going to make any difference,” he told Voix du Liban.

“If the political factions had stood behind Cabinet and assigned a technical committee to specify landfill locations, the problem would have been resolved.”

The minister explained that the Cabinet has been unable to solve the waste crisis because the root of the issue, which is paralysis, hasn’t been resolved. Derbas also dismissed rumors about a military coup in light of the protests.

Amnesty InternationalAhead of Saturday’s protest, Amnesty International issued a press released stressing the need to hold accountable security forces that used “excessive force” against protesters during last weekend’s rallies.

“The Lebanese authorities should investigate allegations that security forces used excessive force to disperse residents protesting in Beirut. ... At least 343 people were treated for injuries and 59 more were hospitalized, according to the Red Cross, after protests on Aug. 22 and 23,” the press release said.

“Lebanese security officials responded to overwhelmingly peaceful protesters in Downtown Beirut by shooting into the air with live rounds, firing rubber bullets, tear gas canisters, and water cannons, and in some cases hurling stones and beating protesters with batons and rifles,” said Lama Fakih, senior crisis adviser at Amnesty International.

Protest organizers have blamed the violence on “infiltrators” linked to political movements, and Salam has vowed to bring to account officials responsible for what he has described as an excessive use of force.

“Even when responding to violence, security forces should never recklessly fire rubber bullets and other projectiles into crowds of protesters. They must respond proportionately, and firearms must not be used except in self-defense or to defend others against imminent risk of death or serious injury,” Fakih said.

“The use of violence by some protesters does not absolve the security forces from blame over targeting of the overwhelmingly peaceful protest movement more broadly.”