A senior ministerial source told CNN that he believed the government would be reduced to career status Monday night. Three cabinet ministers have already been ousted, along with seven members of parliament.
Lebanon has been suffering from its worst economic crisis in decades, along with rising rates of coronavirus, and the government has been plagued by accusations of corruption and gross mismanagement.
Tuesday’s blast, which damaged or destroyed much of the Lebanese capital and was linked to a long-ignored stash of potentially explosive chemicals, was the latest straw for many Beirut residents.
Now, in less than a year, the country will be tasked with finding a third prime minister to deal with the spiraling crisis facing Lebanon on a number of fronts.
Lebanon’s currency has lost 70% of its value since anti-government protests began in October. Poverty has gone up, with the World Bank projecting that more than half of the country’s population would become poor by 2020.
Lebanon’s financial woes were exacerbated earlier this year by government – imposed lockdowns designed to halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic but also severely hamper the country’s damaging economy.
Diab’s ministers had repeatedly accused the ruling class of disrupting its reform plans. Politicians aligned with the country’s banking elite torpedoed the government’s economic program through the IMF, which was expected to dig into bank profits.
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