Officials gathered in front of the Serail in Tripoli on Thursday. (Credit: Michel Hallak/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Public administration employees gathered Thursday morning in front of the Serail in Tripoli to protest the 2022 draft budget and its potential consequences for their living conditions in Lebanon, our correspondent in the area reported.
Here’s what we know:
• Head of the Union of Workers in the North Chadi al-Sayyid said: “People, workers, the poor are tired of the promises of the state … People search the garbage cans to eat!”
• Sayyid also said that the civil servants' movement stands “in solidarity” with the nationwide strike initiated by judicial assistants on Tuesday. Public sector employees are “the heart of the state,” he added.
• Judicial assistants at the Justice Palace in Beirut and in other regions of Lebanon began a weeklong strike on Tuesday demanding “improved material conditions.”
• The representative of the administrative committee of the League of Northern Civil Servants, Ibrahim Nahal, said that the protesters’ demands include improving salaries, allocating funds necessary to help civil servants.
• Tripoli is the poorest city in Lebanon, a country where three-quarters of the population now lives below the poverty line. The draft budget approved by the cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, which still requires Parliament’s approval, proposes new taxes that many believe would worsen the socio-economic situation of the population.