A protester in downtown Beirut on Oct. 24, 2019. (Credit: Ibrahim Amro/AFP archives)
Lebanese protest MPs on Friday marked the sixth anniversary of the popular uprising of Oct. 17, 2019, on social media — a commemoration that has faded over the years — the very movement that brought them to Parliament in 2022.
MP Paula Yacoubian called for "rekindling the spark of awareness that lifted a people from all sects and regions" exactly six years ago. The uprising, she said, "was a revolt against the system of corruption, the mafia of power and the regime’s parties."
"Six years have passed, and the wind of change remains alive in all who believe that dignity and justice are not a luxury, but a right and a promise of a decent future for Lebanon and its children," Yacoubian wrote on her X account.
For his part, Michel Doueihy also saluted the uprising and what it carried "despite the criticisms and reservations that surround it" today, also on his X account.
"We can state with certainty that we are still living one of the phases of the post-Oct. 17 period, in its sovereign, bold, rebellious and reformist face," said the MP, who praised the appointment of Nawaf Salam as prime minister last February.
"We are learning from our mistakes and continuing along the path toward the founding political project that drove us to the streets on Oct. 17 — to build the Lebanese state," Doueihy concluded.
The X account of the Lebanese Forces (LF) — the party whose four ministers resigned from the Saad Hariri government two days after the start of the uprising and which very early sought to ride the protest wave — lauded what it called a "glorious day."
For his part, MP Michel Moawad, a member of a traditional Lebanese political family who ran for president in 2022 with the support of several fellow "protest" MPs, praised a "foundational stage that transformed how Lebanese perceive accountability and the management of public affairs."
"With the election of General Joseph Aoun to the presidency and the formation of a government led by Judge Nawaf Salam, it is essential to continue and protect this path by forming a coherent and unifying political force, capable of bridging divisions and reconciling the concepts of March 14 and Oct. 17 on a solid basis," he wrote, stressing in particular that "sovereignty and reform are inseparable."
The municipal elections last May confirmed the waning of the post-protest movement, with very low scores for its candidates, reflecting the still-unshakeable grassroots support for Lebanon’s traditional parties.
