Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star
President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri have cast gloom over the possibility of forming a new government any time soon. The development reflects lingering differences among rival factions over portfolio distribution and threatens to plunge the country into an open-ended political crisis. “Cabinet formation efforts have been put on hold until after the New Year. Contacts to break the Cabinet formation impasse are currently at a standstill following the emergence of new snags,” a Baabda Palace source told The Daily Star Wednesday.
Although Aoun’s initiative launched earlier this month to resolve the problem of representing six Hezbollah-backed Sunni lawmakers in the next government had failed to break the deadlock, the source said: “The president’s initiative still exists.”
A key element of Aoun’s plan calls for representing the six MPs from the president’s share with a candidate from outside their group, rather than one of the six lawmakers themselves as they had previously demanded.
The Baabda source said a last-minute hitch emerged after the six MPs insisted that the compromise candidate should exclusively represent their group, known as the “Consultative Gathering,” and not belong to any other bloc.
“How can the president cede a ministerial seat to someone who will not be part of his share?” the source said.
Perhaps for the first time, Aoun sounded pessimistic about the prospects of Cabinet formation, now in its eighth month of deadlock, when he called for prayers to resolve the ongoing issues.
He spoke before attending a Christmas Mass in Bkirki led by Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai Tuesday. “We’re in the middle of a government formation crisis. Pray for the difficulties to be resolved.
“It seems that some [parties] are creating new traditions in the Cabinet formation that we have not known before, and we need some time to find solutions to them,” Aoun told reporters after a 30-minute private meeting with Rai ahead of the Mass.
When Rai told Aoun that the Lebanese were waiting for an announcement on the new government as a gift ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays, the president said: “The reason for failing to form [a government] is a political battle.
“It seems there is a change in traditions and norms.”
Aoun appeared to be hinting that some political parties were interfering in how ministerial portfolios should be allocated and thus chipping away at the powers of the president and the prime minister-designate in the Cabinet process.
Asked if Aoun’s remarks targeted Hezbollah – a key ally of the president which is strongly backing the six MPs’ push for representation – the Baabda source said: “The president meant all the parties that are violating constitutional norms in the government formation.”
The Central News Agency quoted sources close to Hezbollah as saying the party “did not consider itself directly concerned with President Michel Aoun’s remarks in Bkirki.”
Berri also painted a bleak outlook. “Contacts are at a standstill and no one is taking any steps in the Cabinet formation issue after all these hurdles,” he was quoted as saying during his weekly meeting with lawmakers at his Ain al-Tineh residence Wednesday.
“What was needed was for the government to be formed before the holidays, but up until now, it has not seen the light of day. Speaker Berri does not want to place blame on any one side,” MP Ali Bazzi from Berri’s parliamentary bloc quoted the speaker as saying.
Berri, according to MPs, emphasized that the only solution to the country’s problems was through “a civilian state” to replace the sectarian-based political system.
“All the disasters that we are suffering from arose from confessionalism and sectarianism that are being further deepened,” he reportedly said.
The Cabinet formation has been stalled since late October by the problem of representing the six MPs not affiliated with the Future Movement. Over the weekend, the lawmakers withdrew their support for Jawad Adra, one of four candidates they had chosen to represent them in the next government.
They said they had reached the decision because “Jawad Adra does not consider himself a representative of the group.”
Also Wednesday, Berri chaired the weekly meeting of the Amal Movement’s parliamentary Development and Liberation bloc that focused on Israel’s continued violations of Lebanon’s airspace to launch attacks on Syria, and the worsening economic crisis that was reflected in street protests staged by civil activist groups in Beirut and other areas Sunday.
“The bloc affirms its full bias toward the people’s rightful demands and which must push the concerned parties to speed up the Cabinet formation and begin tackling the [socio-economic] issues and take the necessary reform measures to put an end to the decline in the financial and economic situation,” the bloc said in a statement after its meeting in Ain al-Tineh.
Taking an indirect jab at caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassi, who was reported to be demanding a redistribution of some ministries – an issue that has further compounded the government formation process – the bloc said it was surprised by the “suspension of contacts over the Cabinet formation and the attempts made for a random distribution of [Cabinet] shares and a swap of ministerial portfolios.”
Bassil, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, also reportedly wanted Adra to be part of the FPM’s parliamentary Strong Lebanon bloc.
Political sources had told The Daily Star that Bassil wanted the six MPs to be represented by a minister close to his party so that the FPM and Aoun could maintain “a veto power,” controlling 11 ministers in a 30-member Cabinet.
MP Walid Sukkarieh, one of the six lawmakers, reiterated the group’s demand to be represented.
“The ball is in the courts of the prime minister-designate and the president who form the Cabinet.
“We want to be represented by one minister,” Sukkarieh, who also belongs to Hezbollah’s 13-member parliamentary bloc, told The Daily Star. He added that any candidate must exclusively represent the six lawmakers.