BEIRUT — Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, briefly met Tuesday morning at the Baabda Palace with the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, in what would be a farewell visit, according to local press, as the head of state ends his term on Oct. 31.
The Twitter account of the Lebanese presidency only said that Mikati was received in Baabda by President Aoun, without further details, posting a photo taken by Dalati and Nohra of the two of them.
Asked by the press about his promise to "sleep in Baada Palace until a new government is formed," made several weeks ago, Mikati replied: "They moved everything to Rabieh, there is no more room [in Baabda Palace] to sleep."
The outgoing Prime Minister is referring to the private residence of Michel Aoun, who is scheduled to leave the palace on Sunday.
Najib Mikati's government has been managing current affairs since May, following the parliamentary elections. He was again appointed to form a cabinet but has still not succeeded in doing so, due to differences with President Aoun's camp over the reshuffling of his team.
This political impasse raises fears of a total vacancy in the executive branch with the end of Aoun's term, with a caretaker cabinet and no president, which would be a first in Lebanon's history.
In the past, the election of a president has led to violence or political crises in a country based on communal power-sharing, with the presidency of the Republic typically reserved for a Maronite Christian.
According to certain analysts cited by AFP, the current crisis is mainly linked to Hezbollah's refusal to accept any electoral process that does not lead to the election of its candidate to the presidency, as happened when its ally Michel Aoun was elected. It took more than two years and 46 electoral sessions for the election in 2016 of Aoun. His tenure was marked by an unprecedented economic collapse, a popular uprising in 2019 that did not succeed and a double explosion at the port of Beirut that ravaged the capital the following year.