Bassil : Mikati and Berri want to 'get their hands on the presidency'

Leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) Gebran Bassil said Friday that Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, among others, want "to achieve a government vacuum and get their hands ... on the presidency."

He claimed they hope to achieve this by delegating the prerogatives of the president to the current caretaker government. Bassil's remarks come just three days before the end of President Michel Aoun's mandate, which expires Oct. 31.

After a meeting at the headquarters of the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerke, Bassil  — who is also Aoun's son-in-law  —  told the local channel LBCI: "There is a clear will and a plan by Mikati, supported by Berri, foreigners, and others to achieve a governmental vacuum and get their hands of the supreme function of the republic: the presidency." 

Bassil's criticisms echo those made by Aoun himself, who said Thursday that Mikati "doesn't want to form a government."

"The top priority is that the supreme function is preserved and that we do not enter a period of power vacancy," added Bassil. "But everyone is taking the presidential vacancy as a given fact."

"May God preserve us from what they are planning ... My duty is to warn, and I have done so," he added.

Bassil also warned of "constitutional chaos" and declared there are "those who clearly want to take us there"  — again a reference to Berri and Mikati. 

In the evening, former MP and former Minister of Economy Nicolas Nahas — Mikati's right-hand man — responded to Bassil's criticism in a statement: "What Bassil says is false. PM-designate submitted a cabinet proposal on June 29, as time was running out and it was required to keep the same team with minimal changes. But it is the president who refused to discuss it."

Nahas also criticized the "numerous and changing conditions" demanded by Bassil in governmental discussions. These "prove that he is asking for a government that he can control, and not a productive cabinet that can perform essential missions in case of a presidential vacancy," he added.

For some time now, the Aounist camp and the Prime Minister-designate have been at odds, especially on the issue of forming a new government. The current cabinet has been in caretaker status since May.