Moustapha Adib, new Prime Minister of Lebanon, faces a titanic task

The new Lebanese Prime Minister, Moustapha Adib, speaks to the press at the presidential palace, after his appointment, on August 31, 2020. REUTERS / Mohamed Azakir

Text by: Paul Khalifeh Follow

7 min

The new Prime Minister of Lebanon, Moustapha Adib, faces gigantic challenges to prevent the collapse of the country.

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From correspondent in Beirut

,

Until Sunday August 30, the vast majority of Lebanese had never heard of the one who will be appointed Prime Minister the next day to succeed Hassane Diab, who resigned since August 10.

Moustapha Adib

is unknown to the general public.

This 49-year-old man, handsome, was summoned urgently from Berlin, where he had occupied the post of Lebanese ambassador to Germany for almost 7 years.

Before his diplomatic career, he was professor of political science at the Lebanese (public) University and lecturer at the Army Military Academy.

Between 2011 and 2013, he held the post of Director of the Cabinet of then Prime Minister, billionaire Najib Mikati, like him from Tripoli, Lebanon's second city in the north of the country.

A profile similar to Hassane Diab

Moustapha Adib's profile is close to his predecessor

.

Both come from academia and are not part of the very closed club of prominent Sunni personalities, from which the heads of government are usually chosen.

However, Adib was dubbed by the "gathering of former prime ministers" (which includes Saad Hariri, Fouad Siniora, Najib Mikati and Tammam Salam), which had deprived Diab of all Sunni legitimacy because it had been proposed by the president's entourage. of the Christian Republic, Michel Aoun, and supported by the Shiite parties.

The choice of Moustapha Adib does not therefore constitute a break with the political system decried by some of the Lebanese.

Even if he is not directly affiliated with a political formation, the diplomat received the support of 90 of the 120 deputies consulted on Monday by President Aoun, representing the entire political spectrum, including the Amal movement and Hezbollah Shiites.

Only the Christian party of the Lebanese Forces, led by former militia leader Samir Geagea, and a few independent deputies, did not nominate him.

Dissenting voices were also raised from outside the political class.

Bahaa Hariri, who disputes with his brother Saad the leadership of the Sunni community inherited from their father Rafic Hariri, considered that Moustapha Adib is " 

".

“ 

 ”the businessman wrote on his

The protest movement disappointed

Certain currents of the protest movement, which has been beating the pavement since October 2019, do not seem to want to grant Moustapha Adib a period of grace.

As soon as his candidacy was announced on Sunday evening, dozens of people gathered in a square in his hometown to denounce this choice, which, according to them, does not meet the aspirations for political change demanded by the protesters.

Aware of the importance of popular support for his mandate, the Prime Minister-designate sought the “ 

 ” after having obtained that of a wide range of the political class.

He therefore went for his first contact with the crowd in Gemmayzé, one of the areas most devastated by the disaster of August 4.

If some people had brief exchanges with him, others refused to speak to him, chanting, as he passed, slogans for " 

 ".

" 

 " said Moustapha Adib, in a district still bearing the stigmata. of the cataclysmic explosion.

In a statement made earlier at the presidential palace, just after his appointment, the prime minister set the tone.

" 

 ".

He pledged to form a “ 

 ” team, made up of experts and competent people, who would carry out the reforms demanded by the Lebanese and by the international community.

“ 

”he said.

Lebanon hopes to obtain a loan of 10 billion dollars from the IMF to curb the collapse and revive the economy.

But negotiations with the financial institution have stalled for months.

A central role for France

The appointment of a prime minister is a small breach in the wall of multiple crises that have hit Lebanon for months.

It is the result of a personal commitment by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has fully invested in avoiding a " 

" in Lebanon.

Many Lebanese experts say that France has exerted strong pressure on all political actors for a new head of government to be appointed before the arrival of the French president in Beirut on Monday evening for his second visit to Lebanon in less than a month.

Some analysts go so far as to say that the choice of Moustapha Adib, who has a French passport from his wife of French nationality, is the result of intense consultations between the heavyweights of the Sunni community and the Elysee.

The projects awaiting the new chief executive are gigantic.

The priority will go to the reconstruction of Beirut, as Saad Hariri said, who offered Mustapha Adib a Sunni cover refused to his predecessor.

The launch of economic and financial reforms are a necessary step before any international aid, vital to avoid a food crisis in the coming months.

But the most complex issue remains political reforms.

In a speech commemorating the centenary of the proclamation of Greater Lebanon on Sunday, President Michel Aoun threw a little bomb by announcing that he wanted

.

This implies the dismantling of the system of political confessionalism, based on the sharing of power and administrative positions between Christians and Muslims.

A system accused of having favored clientelism, nepotism, which encouraged endemic corruption.

He was joined in this on Monday by the Shiite Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berry.

On Sunday morning, Hezbollah's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, spoke out in favor of a “ 

 ”, which Emmanuel Macron called for.

The next few days will tell whether Moustapha Adib will live up to the expectations of the Lebanese and the existential challenges that threaten Lebanon, threatened with " 

 ", according to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves le Drian.

If political parties make it easier for him to form the government, a process that dragged on for months in Lebanon, then that would be a good sign.

Otherwise, it will mean that the promises of political leaders are empty words.

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