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The ambassador’s statement expresses the opinion of an administration that will soon disappear. But no one can guarantee a fundamental change in the directions of the next administration. Also the negative signs are those coming from Paris. It is true that French President Emmanuel Macron continues to adhere to his initiative towards Lebanon to the point of his insistence on reaching Beirut before the end of this year, however, the conference that he will organize under the title of support for Lebanon, at the presidential, will be dedicated exclusively to “stabilize the aid announced after the port explosion”, And will not include any announcement of new aid, according to diplomatic sources of monitoring.
Added to this “gloomy” international atmosphere is a darker internal atmosphere, due to the inability of the ruling class to handle the collapse, up to the stage of cancellation of subsidies to vital goods.
In general, the economic situation of a country, any country, vibrates gradually and in stages that can extend over years. However, the total collapse of Lebanon quickly entered its final stage within a few months. After the State retained all the services related to the economy and the daily needs of the citizen, the support was the last straw that more than half of the Lebanese people clung to to continue living, despite the fragile situation financial, the loss of deposits and the fall in the value of the lira. However, it is clear that support in its previous form has ended or is about to expire, ushering in a new phase that heralds global social anarchy. There is talk of lifting subsidies in exchange for social cards that cover some 600,000 Lebanese families, which are used to buy subsidized items. The total cost of this project was estimated at 1.3 billion dollars a year, but there was a dispute over the identity of the financing provider, the state or the Bank of Lebanon. The Governor of the Central Bank, Riad Salameh, wants to get rid of this “concern”, considering that his responsibility lies with the government. The Lebanese announced last night, during his interview on the channel “Al Arabiya – Al Hadath”, that he could “maintain support for only two months”, relying on “what will come out of the session of the parliamentary commission convened today by the President of Parliament, Nabih Berri, “either through a proposal” A social card or other resources, “he said. And because Salameh believes that the money deposited in the Banque du Liban is like his own safe, he complained about throwing all the funds, from electricity to water, gasoline, wheat and others into the bank, asking: “Is there only the Bank of Lebanon? A question that should be asked of the country’s officials.” The ruler’s words intersect with what he told President Michel Aoun about his ability to act on approximately $ 1.5 billion, after which he gets rid of the crisis that he created. In this context, he is optimistic that banks will increase their capital at the beginning of the new year, according to the circulars that he had previously issued last August, which gave banks a period of 6 months to increase their capital.
The support conference in Paris will be satisfied with “counting” the aid announced after the port explosion
In the midst of all this, the meeting of the Central Council of the Banque du Liban, which was scheduled for today, to discuss the support mechanisms during the next period, has been postponed, and the reason is likely to be to wait for what will lead today the joint parliamentary commission session to get the necessary coverage before any fateful decision is made. However, the opinions of the two deputies of Governor Salim Shaheen and Bashir are attentive in support of the cancellation of subsidies and the liberalization of the lira exchange rate, on the pretext that “will the market correct itself later? ” As for his colleague in the prosecution, Alexander Muradian, he has no opinion to offer, while the first deputy Wasim Mansouri prefers to maintain his nebulous position, with a bias in favor of raising support and removing the fuse from the bank to throw it. to the government on the basis that this issue is not originally the responsibility of the Central Bank. Note that the Monetary and Credit Law specified a clear role for the bank in managing inflation and protecting cash and the economy. However, what is currently being produced is nothing more than a new fraudulent scheme to protect the money of large depositors at the expense of all people, and is wrapped in a “humanitarian” appearance related to the impossibility of disposing of the reserve Mandatory consisting of depositors’ money, while more than $ 100 billion of these funds have been squandered. Without an eyelid of the ruler or of any official. Supporters of increasing subsidies with depositors’ money, without worrying about the livelihood of more than 50 percent of the population classified as poor, cite international testimonies, lifting subsidies for drugs, wheat and fuel without providing any serious and fair alternative. . Until now, not all that is said about the social card is spent in a country that failed to identify the poorest families after the first closure of the Corona pandemic.
Some people have not gone out of their way to explain the mechanism of screening of the needy through the Traffic Management Authority (Nafaa) to reveal the number of used cars in each house and the price of each that you mere absurd propositions that are not based on any scientific justification. Here, an important question is supposed to be asked about what prevented these ideas and projects from being discussed months ago with the start of the discussion about lifting subsidies, and why was a file related to people’s lives being underestimated? and their ability to live and secure the necessary supplies for their families? The discussion was carried on until a state of emergency was entered, so that the solution could be quickly prepared in the way these people wanted and that it was in accordance with the interests of the Banque du Liban, the banks, the politicians, and who represents the 1% in the country? Why were millions of dollars wasted on a food basket, the apparent goal of which was to lower citizens’ purchasing bills, and ended up serving merchants and monopolists?
This leads to many questions about Berri’s role in what is happening and his insistence on pushing parliament into what are supposed to be government tasks, unless the intention of the committee meeting is to impose a bill. to support the poor and middle classes. But if the session did not come with legislation at the service of the public interest, it would seek to cover up Salama’s decision to raise support or what the parliamentary blocs promoted by “rationalizing support”, but without a clear plan. Berri’s performance over the past period is not separated from the path of twinning with Salameh, starting with abandoning the government’s financial recovery plan, going through the Capital Control Law and ending with the expansion of the criminal audit department to remove it.
Xia believes that most political forces coexist with “Hezbollah’s hegemony.”
In this context, yesterday the message from Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni reached Salameh, confirming the main commitment to bury the audit by creating conditions that seem “reformist” and in which they only serve corruption and security and conceal the waste of depositors and people’s money. Wazni wanted to “implement the decision of the House of Representatives and subject all public administration accounts to criminal accounting scrutiny in accordance with current laws and regulations, preserving the rights of the state for any party.” The latter did not mention the mutual accounts between the Banque du Liban and the banks, limiting the problem to state accounts that were completed during the era of Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and that are present in the Accounting Office, which means that they do not need to be audited or a special law to deliver them, unlike the Emirate of Salama, whose corridors cannot be entered. .
The price of the drug will double five times!
“We are going to total social chaos, and its beginning will be in the health sector,” says the head of the Parliamentary Health Commission, Representative Assem Araji. It will not be before the collapse of the guarantor institutions, including the institutions of the army and the security forces. These institutions spend around 500 billion pounds annually on medicine. If the subsidies are removed, the figure will double to 2.5 billion pounds. The matter will apply to the price of the drug, which will be five times more expensive, putting the lives of tens of thousands at risk, especially for those with incurable diseases, pressure, diabetes and heart. On the other hand, Araji emphasizes the need to “rationalize subsidies”, that is to say, reduce the number of subsidized drugs, whose maintenance on the support list only serves distributors. There is a quick plan to lift subsidies for “brand” drugs that can be replaced by “generic” drugs, and here, buying “brand” at the highest price becomes the consumer’s choice. This plan is supposed to be associated with the prevention of drug smuggling. However, Araji is pessimistic and predicts a great disaster that will blow up the country. The meetings with the Ministerial Committee of a few months ago are useless and seek to protect the profits of traders, as if nothing had changed.
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