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The economic bailout plan announced by Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has received mixed reactions from opposition parties and politicians between questioning the implementation of Hezbollah’s control and the call to await the IMF response.
Before the plan’s announcement, former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said: “We will read the reform plan and if it is good, we will cooperate to work for it to be successful. If the government fails, of course I am with its overthrow.”
Hezbollah’s hegemony turns it into paper
Kataeb Party member Nadim Al-Jameel questioned the possibility of implementing the plan under the control of the Hezbollah government.
He wrote through his Twitter account: “Congratulations to the government on its approval of an economic-financial plan for the first time! This plan is nothing more than ink on paper in light of Hezbollah’s dominance and implementation of the plan and Khomeini’s project, which is totally inconsistent with the ideas presented. ”
In turn, former Labor Minister Kamil Abu Suleiman said: “Finally, the government will request a program from the International Monetary Fund, and I have been requesting it since March 2019.”
He said via his Twitter account: “Resorting to the fund is a mandatory step for the success of any rescue plan, debt restructuring and restoration of donor confidence, regardless of whether we like it or not.”
He stressed that “speeding up bold action is essential to get out of the crisis with minimal harm.”
Deduction by the “Monetary Fund”
For his part, Ghassan Hasbani, a former deputy prime minister and minister of health, said in a television interview: “The planning principle is a good and essential step, but the rapid and adequate application of measures and the lifting of pressure on the citizen is the most important and urgent matter. ”
He stressed that “what is required is to restore confidence in the Lebanese banking sector and the productive sectors, and for the government to demonstrate its independence and real capacity to carry out reforms, and to persuade the international community that supports Lebanon to that it is an integrated plan and that you can implement it. ”
On the role of the International Monetary Fund, Hasbani emphasized that “the opinion of the International Monetary Fund on the plan is essential to open the door to international aid in addition to the political position.”
Hasbani warned that if Hezbollah is shown, directly or indirectly, or any political party that has positioned itself against countries that can support Lebanon, then it will be difficult to obtain this support.
Regarding the recovery of the stolen money, he said: “The plan set a term of 10 years to recover the stolen money, estimated at $ 10 billion, and if this is achieved, it is a good thing, but the procedures, verification and evidence required require several years in Lebanon’s system. ”
Calls to boycott the plan
After the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, invited the heads of the parliamentary blocks to the presidential palace to discuss the plan, the former deputy Fares Saeed criticized this matter and said in a tweet on his Twitter account: ” Responding to the President’s call to discuss the reform plan of the parliamentary blocs is equivalent to accepting the correction. His policy. ”
He said: “Boycott and discuss the reform document in accordance with constitutional principles. Baabda (the presidential palace) is not a parliament and the parliament is not a slave, and the prime minister is not Hezbollah’s representative in the republic.” .
For its part, the Liberal Patriots Party said in a statement that “the Lebanese do not trust the approval of an economic plan and its implementation under a government that is reeling, and under official administrations that have assumed responsibilities and have failed to do so. over the years to protect the future of the Lebanese people and their money and reap their ages. ”
Consequently, he warned the party against “damaging the free economic system and dragging Lebanon into the target economy and uniting it with the system of the economies of the reluctant countries that are impoverishing their people.”
In turn, the head of the Movement for Change, the lawyer Eli Mahfoud, wrote on his Twitter account, saying: “The Hassan Diab government is moving in its economic document to what appears to be nationalization, which is a type or form of socialism and communism. As for dependence on the International Monetary Fund, it means asking for loans again, that is, promises. ” At startup “.
The rescue plan
Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, and after approximately 3 months after the formation of his government, announced Thursday that his country would seek help from the International Monetary Fund to end the accelerated economic collapse, shortly after the cabinet approved a rescue plan aimed at taking the country out of the cycle of financial collapse.
Diab said, in a speech to the Lebanese: “We will continue to request a program with the International Monetary Fund,” describing his government’s plan as “a clear roadmap for managing public finances,” while the country is witnessing the worst economic crisis in decades and 45% of the population lives below the poverty line.
The government hopes to restructure the accumulated public debt, through its plan to persuade the international community that it should undertake “quick and effective” reforms, granting it more than $ 20 billion to support the small country that is exhausted by successive years political crises and decades of corruption.
Diab emphasized that “the plan is based on the need to immediately start implementing the long-awaited reforms at the level of the state administration, financial policy, the financial sector, the central bank, the current account and the balance of payments.”
He noted that his government “set 5-year goals” that include “reducing the current account deficit to 5.6%” and “obtaining external financial support of more than $ 10 billion, in addition to Cedar Conference funds” promised by the international community to Lebanon In 2018, on condition of reforms worth $ 11 billion.
The plan also aims to “reduce the ratio of public debt to GDP to less than 100%.”
Lebanon is one of the most indebted countries in the world, and its debts amount to $ 92 billion, which is equivalent to more than 170% of its GDP.
The plan, according to Diab, aims to “restructure the banking and financial sectors” and carry out fundamental reforms such as the electricity sector, which is the largest financial gap.
Diab emphasized that his government’s plan aims to “protect depositors’ money and strengthen and restructure banks, so that they can secure people’s money and basic services for the economy.”
For months, banks have imposed strict procedures on cash operations and deposit withdrawals, and refrain from paying them entirely in US dollars, but the government said its plan protects the rights of “at least 98% of depositors. ”
Diab considered that it is possible, under the plan, “to depend in part on the capital and bank assets of the banking institutions abroad, the real estate it owns, the real estate owned by the Bank of Lebanon and other assets.”
