http://nna-leb.gov.lb-NNA – The President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, considered that the delay in forming the government after more than six months passed since Prime Minister Saad Hariri was assigned to form it, “has negative effects which are not limited to the emergence of the procedural authority and the regularity of the constitutional authorities’ in accordance with the provisions of the constitution, but rather they apply to political stability, health safety social, economic, financial, and public services that have prevented the effective treatment of sensitive files in light of inherited crises, or a state of exacerbation on more than one level.”
In a letter addressed this afternoon to the Parliament through Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, President Aoun considered that the reasons for the delay in establishing the procedural authority should not remain the object of speculation, ambiguity or diligence, whether internal or external, and it is not permissible to capture the formation to an unspecified time, especially since the expected government is only a government to rescue Lebanon from its aforementioned suffocating crises, and that the formation of the government is an obligatory constitutional act and not a kind of discretion and luxury. The president of the republic, who is entrusted with the constitution, must ensure that no wrong constitutional norms arise when the constitutional authorities are established.
President Aoun said, “It has become evident that the PM-designate is unable to form a government capable of salvation and meaningful communication with foreign financial institutions, international funds and donor countries, to set up aid programs that would save the country that is bleeding dearly at all levels, and is still holding the formation after he was assigned. He is making it as a captive of the people and the government and taking them together as a hostage driven to the abyss, ignoring all reasonable time for the formation.”
The President of the Republic also considered that “there is no way but to adhere to the necessary and customary approach in forming governments in accordance with the provisions of Articles 53 (Paragraph 4) and 64 (Clause 2) of the Constitution. This approach proposes a clear and unambiguous explanation for the parliamentary groups participating in or supporting the government, and it is based on the fair distribution of portfolios among them, and the popular representation under our parliamentary democratic system simulates the fact that the people are the source of powers and the owner of the sovereignty that they exercise through constitutional institutions, according to what is mentioned in paragraph (d) of the introduction to the constitution. This simulation means, in practice, the adoption of one criteria in the lineup, without permitting exclusion or monopoly, in order to preserve the fairness of representation mentioned and stipulated in Article 95 of the Constitution (Paragraph A) and the charter that becomes available, as a result of the matter, when respecting the principles and provisions of the Constitution and the constitutional norms.”
President Aoun emphasized in his letter that he is entrusted, in his capacity as President of the Republic, not only with respecting the above principles in the mechanism for forming governments, but also on the need to secure confidence in Parliament so that the country and its people do not move from a caretaker government to another caretaker government.
He said that the PM-designate “insists to date not to present a government formation that enjoys our agreement and with it the confidence required by Parliament in accordance with the constitution, in addition to his interruption of conducting the necessary parliamentary consultations with the various parliamentary blocs and the worst is that he is ceasing from continuous consultations with the president, which is the duty of the president of the republic to agree on a government formation that has the confidence of the parliament, the Lebanese and the international community.
President Aoun requested that his letter be discussed in the Parliament General Assembly according to the principles, and to take the appropriate position, action, or decision regarding it for the benefit of the people who groan in pain as they await their new government and are hoping for it, starting with the realization of the most basic rights that is lacked, all the way to complete and sustainable security. What they aspire is to facilitate the formation of the long-awaited government, which is available if the Prime Minister-designate abandons the argument that he is the one who “forms” the government, provided that the president of the republic “issues” the decree, while Article 53, Paragraph 4 of the Constitution is explicit in terms of “agreement” before issuing the decree of forming the government, and that the sequence of paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the aforementioned article and its expressions indicate that the constitution is the result of the amendments introduced to it after the approval of the National Accord document by your honorable assembly.
The president of the republic assigns explicit competence in the exhibition of the generation and establishment of governments in agreement with the appointed prime minister, so his authority becomes unrestricted and it is not merely a documenting of the formation of the appointed prime minister, otherwise participation will cease and the agreement will not be fulfilled and verify the charter and constitutionality of the formation. “– Presidency Press Office