Lebanon’s caretaker Foreign Minister and head of the Free Patriotic Movement Gebran Bassil placed on Friday a new criterion for the government formation by granting each parliamentary bloc one minister for every five deputies won during the last May 12 elections.
“The fair criterion would be a minister for every five deputies, because if we adopt the criteria of four ministers, we would end up with 38 ministers,” he said during a press conference.
Bassil’s new standard would allow his parliamentary bloc to take six ministers in the new cabinet, in return of only three to his Christian rival, the Lebanese Forces (LF).
However, the LF refused the new criterion and said Bassil was not responsible for forming the new cabinet. “The only standard we will follow is the popular criterion which allows us to receive one third of Christian ministers,” the LF said in response to Bassil.
The Foreign Minister’s comments came following a positive climate inspired on Thursday evening by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who said the government will be formed within a week to 10 days.
In an interview with Marcel Ghanem on MTV, Hariri said the new cabinet would be a national accord government that includes the main political parties and protects the country from the challenges.
“I am willing to give the Lebanese Forces, the Free Patriotic Movement and all the parties from my own share because what is important is the country, the economy and the Lebanese citizen,” Hariri said.
But, Bassil’s comments on Friday reshuffled papers and drove former MP Fadi Karam, the Secretary of the LF’s Strong Republic Parliamentary bloc, to write on his twitter account, “We are shifting from one maneuver to another, and from one failure to another.”
Without naming Bassil, he said, “His only concern is to control all the decisions to pass certain files... And the only obstacle standing in the way is the Lebanese Forces. Yes, that’s how officials wager on obstruction.”
