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Hassan Diab in 2012 when he was Minister of Education in Lebanon. AFP

The academic and ex-Minister of Education Hassan Diab, who received the support of the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah, was charged this Thursday, December 19, to form a government by the President of the Republic Michel Aoun.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun launched parliamentary consultations on Thursday, several times postponed, to choose a head of government to replace Saad Hariri, who resigned at the end of October under pressure from the demonstrators. As expected, his choice fell on Hassan Diab for the post of Prime Minister.

An engineer little known to the general public, Hassan Diab was Minister of Education in a cabinet dominated by Hezbollah and its allies in 2011. A government formed after the collapse of a coalition already led at the time by Saad Hariri , who announced Wednesday that he was not a candidate for his own estate.

Balance between different religious communities

Lebanon's multi-faith political system is designed to ensure a balance between different religious communities, with a Sunni Prime Minister in principle supported by the main leaders of his community.

The fact remains that several of them - including Saad Hariri and his movement, the Current of the future - did not support Hassan Diab. Senior officials of the Current of the Future have said that they may not be part of the next government, raising fears of the emergence of a rift likely to complicate the implementation of the reforms requested by the protesters and the international community.

On the brink of economic collapse, Lebanon has been living since October 17 at the rate of an unprecedented popular uprising against the entire ruling class, accused of corruption and incompetence. The demonstrators demand the formation of a cabinet of technocrats independent of the political harassment in power since the end of the civil war (1975-1990).

(With AFP)