Protesters gather in Downtown Beirut on April 26, 2022, to denounce a draft capital control law. (Credit: Kabalan Farah/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Protesters gathered in front of the parliament on Tuesday morning in opposition to the capital control draft law, which was supposed to be discussed by a joint parliamentary committee session at 10:30 a.m. However, sources L'Orient Today spoke to confirmed that the session was canceled.
Here’s what we know:
• Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had referred the draft law to the Finance and Budget Committee and the Administration and Justice Committee, which were able to convene in three sessions to discuss it, the last of which was held Tuesday. An agreement hasn’t been reached by the joint committees due to pressure from the protesters who blocked a number of MPs from entering Parliament, insisting on discussing the economic recovery plan first.
• The draft law aims to legalize and standardize banking restrictions put in place since the start of the economic crisis in 2019. That capital control law’s approval is a required condition by the International Monetary Fund to implement the preliminary agreement reached with Lebanon to provide the country with $3 billion over four years.
• Participating in the protest are the Association of Depositors, the Federation of Trade Unions, the Bar Association, MMFD, Li Haqqi, the Coalition for the Independence of the Judiciary under the title “All of us means all of us will drop the general amnesty project for banks.”
• More than 80 percent of the Lebanese now live below the poverty line, and depositors are struggling to withdraw enough money to meet their needs due to banking restrictions.