After Lebanese businessman Najib Mikati was nominated as prime minister, the European Union on Monday (July 26) urged Lebanese political elites to immediately form a government.
The EU said in a statement: “It is now vital to immediately form a credible and responsible government in Lebanon that can resolve the serious economic and social crisis facing the country.”
“For the benefit of the Lebanese people, we call on Lebanese political leaders to cooperate and allow the rapid formation of a credible and capable government,” it said.
Lebanese lawmakers on Monday instructed former prime minister and billionaire Mikati to form a government to end the political deadlock that has dragged down the economy for a year.
The new government will face the arduous task of trying to steer Lebanon out of what the World Bank said is one of the world’s worst financial crises in more than 150 years, and conduct a poll next year.
Mikati is a 65-year-old telecommunications tycoon who is regarded by some as a symbol of Lebanese corrupt oligarchy, calling his appointment a “difficult step” and urging the Lebanese people to support him.
“I don’t have a magic wand, I can’t do miracles alone,” he said.
Mikati will succeed his predecessor, Saad Hariri, where he left earlier this month when he resigned after failing to facilitate a deal under intense international pressure.
The official state news agency stated that he received more than 72 support, including from the powerful Shia Hezbollah movement.
One MP voted for Navaf Salam, a senior diplomat, while 42 other MPs, including President Michel Aoun’s Freedom Patriotic Movement, abstained from voting on any candidate.
The formation of a real government may take several months, but Lebanon, hit by the crisis, is struggling to cope with increasing poverty, currency collapse and shortages of basic items from medicines to fuel, and cannot afford any delay.
‘Get rich illegally’
Mikati was last in power in 2014, and was the third prime minister nominated since the resignation of Hassan Diab’s caretaker government following a huge bombing in Beirut port last August.
He must now begin negotiations with Aoun and political factions on the cabinet lineup, while Diab will continue to serve as a caretaker.
After meeting with Aoun, he told reporters that the new prime minister said: “If I don’t have the necessary guarantee of external power…I will not accept” this job.
The Sunni Muslim businessman started in politics in 1998.
According to Forbes, he is considered the richest man in Lebanon and one of the richest in the Middle East, with a net worth of US$2.7 billion.
He is a native of Tripoli, the second largest city in Lebanon and one of the poorest cities. He was accused by the state prosecutor of getting rich illegally in 2019, but he denied the accusation.
Many people in Lebanon consider Mikati to be a symbol of the corrupt ruling class targeted by the 2019 protest movement.
“How can I trust a thief who stole me and my children and their future?” Mohammed Deeb, a 57-year-old Beirut resident, asked after Mikati’s appointment.
“As long as this (political) class is still in power, nothing will change.”
On the eve of the negotiations, dozens of protesters gathered outside Mikati’s Beirut home, accusing him of corruption and nepotism.
But Lebanon’s bickering politicians regard Mikati as a consensus candidate, who has the ability to ease the political deadlock that hinders efforts to form a government.
International assistance
After he took office, the black market value of the Lebanese pound, officially pegged to the US dollar, fell to a historical low in mid-July.
Donors headed by the former colonial power, France, pledged to provide millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, but on the condition that Lebanon establishes a government capable of solving the problem of corruption.
The French Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Lebanon urgently needs to form a “competent and capable” government to implement reforms “critical to the country’s recovery.”
A spokesperson for the EU’s head of foreign policy Jose Porrell called on Lebanese political leaders to “cooperate”.
The EU issued a statement after Mikati took office, saying: “It is now vital to immediately form a credible and responsible government in Lebanon that can resolve the serious economic and social crisis facing the country.”
France said earlier this month that it will host an aid conference on August 4 to “respond to the needs of Lebanese, whose situation is deteriorating every day.”
This date coincides with the first anniversary of the port explosion that killed more than 200 people, and it is widely attributed to decades of negligence by the country’s ruling class.
Mikati first served as prime minister in 2005 when he led a three-month interim government established after the murder of Saad Hariri’s father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
In 2011, he led a Hezbollah-led government that had to deal with the spillover effects of the war in Syria next door.
Mikati resigned in 2013 because Lebanese politicians were severely polarized on the issue of the Syrian conflict, and the internal fighting of his own government led to a political deadlock.
