Michel Aoun bids farewell to the Lebanese Presidency amid harsh criticism of the Government, the Judiciary and the Central Bank

MADRID, 30 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The still president of Lebanon, Michel Aoun, has said goodbye this Sunday from his post, 24 hours after the official end of his term, signing the letter of resignation of the current Government, a symbolic gesture by which he intends to remove the designated prime minister, Nayib Mikati, any type of competence to assume part of the powers of the Presidency, currently vacant due to the absence of a successor, in the midst of the suffocating political and economic crisis that the country is going through.

"This morning, I have sent a letter to Parliament with the signing of the decree of resignation of the outgoing Council of Ministers of Nayib Mikati", announced the 89-year-old political veteran, in his farewell speech at the Baabda Presidential Palace, to the outskirts of Beirut.

It should be remembered that the Government resigned since the end of the previous legislature, with the election in May of a new Parliament. However, the letter is a rather forceful attack on the legitimacy of Mikati's current functions.

Indeed, Aoun's favorite to succeed him in the Presidency, Gebran Bassil, his son-in-law, on Saturday accused Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri of making plans for the post-Aoun era to "auction off" the remaining powers of the President. Mikati, on the other hand, assures that he has no intention of making any decision that contravenes the country's Constitution.

In his letter, Aoun calls for the urgent convening of a Parliament session in three days to read out his decree of dissolution in the hope of speeding up negotiations to find him a replacement. Without a president, the laws approved in the chamber cannot enter into force, nor can a prime minister be appointed, nor can cabinets be approved before parliamentary ratification.

Likewise, Aoun has also harshly criticized the governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salamé, accused in March of illicit enrichment, as well as his brother Raja, accused of having organized a corrupt plot to launder money through several companies he owned. .

The charges are part of a lawsuit in which both brothers are accused of a crime of embezzlement and illicit enrichment during the worst financial crisis in the history of Lebanon, one of the worst recorded worldwide since the mid-nineteenth century, as stated in June 2021 by the World Bank. The process is awaiting trial.

Aoun lamented in his speech "all the financial crimes that were committed by the governor of the Banque du Liban (BDL)", and criticized the impunity that he seems to display before asking himself "who protects him". Likewise, the president once again called for the implementation of reforms in a country that he described as "looted" and to "get rid" of the people who have blocked the investigation of the tragic explosions of August 2020 in the port of Beirut .

"The judiciary is not playing its role and the culprits are still out of court, perhaps because they are cronies of those in charge," he added.