The entrance of the Constitutional Council, in Hadath. (Credit: NNA)
MPs from the Strong Lebanon bloc, led by Gebran Bassil, filed an appeal on Thursday before the Constitutional Council in Hadath, in the suburbs of Beirut, contesting the constitutionality of the decree promulgating the 2025 budget draft by the government in early March, reported the state-run National News Agency (NNA).
The Strong Lebanon bloc comprises of parliamentarians from the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), including Gebran Bassil, Jimmy Jabbour, Ghassan Atallah, Edgard Traboulsi, Nada Boustany, Charbel Maroun, Selim Aoun, Nicolas Sehnaoui and Cesar Abi Khalil. They follow in the footsteps of eleven other MPs, mostly from opposition blocs, who filed a similar appeal on Wednesday. These include Paula Yacoubian, Melhem Khalaf, Najat Aoun Saliba, Firas Hamdan, Adib Abdel Massih, Bilal Houshaimi, Melhem Tok, Adnan Traboulsi, Taha Naji, Ibrahim Mneimneh and Tony Frangieh.
The contested budget draft, prepared by the previous government of Najib Mikati, was heavily criticized upon its publication for its extensive use of taxes to try to address the economic and financial crisis that the country has been facing since 2019, as well as the lack of reforms.
The current government of Nawaf Salam promulgated the decree in early March, citing a lack of time to prepare another. However, during a session on March 13, it approved a bill allowing it to review certain taxes, fees, and other charges in the 2025 budget draft. This text notably cancels taxes on alcoholic beverages, which would have had "economic and social repercussions," a point notably raised by the Association of Lebanese Industrialists.