Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — The leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) Gebran Bassil said Thursday evening that "the outcome in accordance with the law is for the first deputy governor to assume the powers of the governor" of Banque du Liban (BDL) if there is no political agreement around a suitable candidate to take up the role. Under this understanding, when Riad Salameh's term as governor expires at the end of July, Wassim Mansouri, the first deputy governor, who is a member of the Shiite community, would succeed the man who has headed BDL for over 30 years. The post of head of the central bank is traditionally reserved for a Maronite.
"There are two solutions: either appoint someone with a reputation for efficiency and honesty or find a political consensus around a suitable personality rather than resorting to unconstitutional measures as the government is doing," said Bassil. In remarks made at an FPM dinner on Thursday in the Metn region and reported by the state-run National News Agency, he added: "If these two solutions don't work, the outcome in accordance with the law is for the first deputy governor to assume the governor's powers."
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati was due to chair a cabinet meeting Thursday to try to appoint a successor to Riad Salameh, but the session failed due to lack of quorum. Mikati's critics, notably Bassil, accuse him of arrogating to himself the prerogatives of the president in the absence of a head of state. Lebanon has been without a head of state since the end of October 2022. The presidential vacuum comes at a time when the country's cabinet is serving in a caretaker capacity, having assumed the status following parliamentary elections in May 2022, and is therefore only empowered to manage the day-to-day affairs of state governance.
Mikati met Thursday with the four BDL vice governors. Following the meeting, Mikati told L'Orient-Le Jour that they had "agreed to remain in their posts and fulfill their responsibilities." The vice governors had previously threatened to resign.
The FPM leader also warned on Thursday of "the continuation of the same financial and monetary policy of waste and corruption after the end of Governor Salameh's term, by a new governor or by the vice-governors," adding that that Salameh "should have been dismissed, tried and imprisoned, rather than wait until the end of his term."
The BDL governor is the subject of several judicial investigations in Lebanon and Europe on suspicion of corruption, but he defends himself against these accusations.
Bassil added, "The resignation of the vice-governors does not absolve them of their responsibility to pursue their mission."
Referring to the presidential deadlock, the FPM leader said: "If they're stubborn, we'll be stubborn too. If they cling to their candidate, we'll cling to ours, Jihad Azour, and we won't let go of him," in an allusion to the Hezbollah and Amal camp, which supports Sleiman Frangieh, leader of the Marada Movement, for the presidency. The opposition to this camp supported Azour, a former finance minister and senior official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), during the last electoral session but failed to garner the votes he needed to win election.
Decentralization
"Dialogue is no longer for free. There are no more gifts. Dialogue and intensified consultations must meet certain conditions if they are to succeed. We won't give anyone any more time for free," Bassil warned.
"The price [in return] for their candidate for the presidency of the republic, for us, will be no less than an extended administrative decentralization that will be paid for in advance through the passing of a law. It will also require a sovereign fund, voted into law too, as well as a state-building program. Otherwise, the failure will be yours," he added.
For his part, the head of Hezbollah's parliamentary group, Mohammad Raad, said Friday that "efforts are continuing to reconcile the Lebanese among themselves and to understand each other around the presidential election." Speaking at a Hezbollah event in Sour (southern Lebanon), he hoped that these efforts "will lead some people to reconsider their obstructionist intentions, which do not serve the national interest."
"We have not changed our position. And we won't. We are ready to convince the others," he added.
French President Emmanuel Macron's envoy, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who completed a second tour of Lebanon on Thursday during which he held talks with the political actors, is expected to convene talks in September in an attempt to break the deadlock in the presidential elections, which have been at an impasse since October 2022, when Michel Aoun's term in office expired.