BEIRUT: Ministers are set to meet at Baabda Palace Thursday for a second emergency Cabinet session this week in a bid to save the salary hike for public sector, days before the government has to pay employees. After the Constitutional Council annulled the tax hikes last week, Cabinet held an extraordinary meeting at the Grand Serail Tuesday, but failed to come up with tangible solutions.

President Michel Aoun, who returned from an official visit to France Wednesday, will head the session at the Baabda Palace.

Despite earlier threats by labor unions, civil servants and schoolteachers to intensify street protests, the nationwide strike that crippled public institutions and schools earlier in the week lost steam Wednesday.

Private schools saw traffic nearby as students and teachers showed up after the Union of Private Schools suspended their strike. Late Wednesday, the head of Lebanon’s private schoolteacher’s union, Rodolph Abboud, held a news conference calling for the strike’s suspension.

However, some public administrations remain closed, such as vehicle registration centers and the port. Vehicle registration centers were reopened after the intervention of the Traffic Management Center head Hoda Salloum.

However, according to local media outlets, 3,000 cars remained stuck at the Beirut Port as employees refused orders to work.

Meanwhile, the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers called for the fourth day of general strikes in protest against the possibility the government would renege on the salary hike for public sector workers without the tax hikes to fund it.

New ways of funding the salary scale will be discussed by ministers, as reports emerged that Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil had a proposal for an expedited draft law rejected.

Rifts between Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement seemed to widen over methods of funding.

Justice Minister Salim Jreissati sounded cautiously optimistic as he told MTV that intentions were clear for the session Thursday. “There is groundwork for an agreement, but any recommendations have the potential to be protested.”

Jreissati confirmed Berri’s sentiments the day before, saying that ties were fine between Aoun and Berri. This is despite Aoun’s FPM affiliates calling for the speaker’s insistence on passing the salary scale law along with a string of taxes to fund it before the ratification of the state budget.

“We know that no one can [jeopardize] the authority of the legislative authority,” Jreissati said in response to comments Berri made earlier in the week. The speaker said Tuesday that what was happening “was an infringement on Parliament, an assault on the speaker’s prerogatives and a violation of the Taif Accord.”

When asked why Berri was adamant not to amend Article 87 and pass the salary scale without the state budget, the minister said Berri did not want this constitutional change to open the door for more changes.

“We are saying that this is an extraordinary situation dealing with public wealth and the capability of legislative authority over financial auditing and this [constitutional article] grants a suspension,” he said.

Separately, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon Joseph Torbey met. However, speaking to reporters after the meeting, the banker made no mention of talks on the salary scale and methods of funding.