While waiting for Saad Hariri to stay in Al-Bahsa on Monday, the shock of his decision cast its shadow on the general national scene.
While the heads of government met yesterday, and this evening, former MP Walid Jumblatt, ambiguity still surrounds the positions of other former allies of Hariri, most notably the Lebanese Forces, which are still silent, knowing that the future exit from the race negatively affects their electoral status in a large number of constituencies. Kazhle, Akkar, North Bekaa, Chouf and Aley.
On the other hand, it seemed remarkable, but not surprising, given the previous experiences with all components, especially with President Saad Hariri personally during his crisis in Saudi Arabia. Boycotting the elections is unhealthy for the country.
The movement stressed that the idea of frustration experienced by most Christians from the early nineties until the year 2005, and its cost to the country was exorbitant. While the movement expressed its refusal to disappoint any Lebanese component, it affirmed its support for everything that could achieve the required national and charter balance..
Meanwhile, the Lebanese are waiting for the Council of Ministers, which will resume its meetings on Monday, to assume its responsibilities in expediting the approval of a budget that reflects the required reforms and integrates with the financial and economic recovery plan to get out of the ongoing collapse..
In this context, the current saw in a preliminary reading of the distributed budget bill that it does not reflect trends to stimulate the economy and does not deviate from being a digital budget, and that it lacks serious reform provisions related to the tax system. The current considered that one of the strangest things contained in the project was granting the Minister of Finance exceptional powers to amend the income tax law and imposing rules for dealing with new deposits in dollars and the right to price the exchange rate of the lira against the dollar through what was called the tax and customs dollars and others, and this is a dangerous development as the House of Representatives has not previously been granted Exceptional powers in such sensitive and fateful matters that require the approval of two-thirds of the members of the Council of Ministers.
In a related context, the current warned that any budget that includes austerity measures, an increase in subsidies or new taxes, must coincide with a logical correction of wages in the public and private sectors. In parallel, the current expressed its concern about Article 132 of the draft budget law, which limits the obligation to pay deposits in foreign currencies to what it calls new deposits, reiterating the importance of conducting criminal audits in the accounts of the Banque du Liban. The current also stopped when the government ignored the seriousness of the circulars that the governor of the Central Bank was doing to manipulate the exchange rate.
Today, a remarkable development emerged through the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister’s visit to Beirut, and his meeting with the Prime Minister. Tomorrow he will visit Baabda Palace, Ain al-Tineh, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs..
However, the beginning of the bulletin is from the latest data on Saad Hariri’s position on the elections.