Free Patriotic Movement head Gebran Bassil. (Credit: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP)
BEIRUT — Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Gebran Bassil tweeted Thursday that Friday's scheduled cabinet meeting is a “provocation” and “a blow to the constitution."
Cabinet is set to convene at 3 p.m. on Friday and discuss a lengthy 72-item agenda.
يحصل ما حذّرنا منه مرارًا منذ عدّة شهور: رئيس حكومة تصريف الاعمال المنقوصة الشرعية والدستورية والميثاقية يدعو، ومن وراءه، باسم القوة القاهرة ومصلحة الدولة العليا، لعقد مجلس وزراء للبحث في مواضيع ضرورية ومستعجلة وطارئة من 72 بند من بينها مراسيم عقود بالتراضي و فتح اعتمادات عادية…
— Gebran Bassil (@Gebran_Bassil) May 25, 2023
“What we have repeatedly warned about for several months is happening: the illegitimate cabinet of caretaker Prime Minister [Najib Mikati] called in the name of force majeure and the supreme interest of the state, to convene a cabinet meeting,” Bassil said in his tweet.
Lebanon's cabinet has been serving in a caretaker capacity, technically without full powers, since May 2022 legislative elections. The FPM regularly criticizes and boycotts the caretaker cabinet’s meetings and calls them "unconstitutional" because the country has also lacked a president since Nov. 1.
Following the end of former President Michel Aoun's term, Parliament agreed that the cabinet should not meet except in cases of emergency.
“The worst thing is that the matter is happening with the silence of spiritual and political authorities who claim to be keen on the position of the presidency and call for the speedy election of the president. Those who are really in a hurry to elect the president shouldn't remain silent about such cabinet meetings,” Bassil tweeted.
“Those who call for [the cabinet meetings] deliberately continue the policy of [postponing the election of a president] so that they can fill it with whoever they want,” he said.
FPM has accused Mikati of wanting to seize presidential powers following Aoun's departure by continuing to hold cabinet meetings.
“Is it permissible for such sessions and such decisions and such decrees in the absence of the president?” Bassil said.