Screenshot of a video showing graffiti sprayed at the Energy Ministry. (Credit: screenshot of Lebanon24 video)
BEIRUT — Protesters entered and vandalized the Ministry of Energy and Water on Friday, where they tore down and ripped up a portrait of Lebanese president Michel Aoun to protest increasingly frequent power cuts, videos circulating on social media showed.
Here’s what we know:
• The video taken by one of the entrants in the ministry and reposted by numerous pages affiliated with the October 2019 uprising shows the torn portrait of the president while other protesters can be heard yelling off-screen. Another video shows a verbal altercation between protesters and someone who appears to be an employee of the ministry. The current Energy Minister, Walid Fayyad, is reportedly close to the Aoun-founded Free Patriotic Movement, which has had control over the Energy Ministry since 2008.
• Other videos of the incident show prolific graffiti-writing by the protesters who altered the Ministry sign so it read “Ministry of no Energy and no Water,” which was re-written on the interior walls along with other anti-establishment slogans. In one video, “the drunk minister” can be seen written on one of the ministry’s doors. On the eve of the break-in, a video circulating on social media showed Energy Minister Walid Fayyad during a night out.
• The crises affecting Lebanon have made power cuts increasingly frequent, forcing the use of diesel generators to fill the electricity supply deficit. As diesel prices have risen with global fuel prices, generator operating hours are subject to severe rationing while bills reach exorbitant prices for the increasingly impoverished population.