An unprecedented movement paralyzes Lebanon. Many demonstrators gathered on Saturday, October 19, for a third day of protests against the inability of a politician accused of corruption to tackle the economic crisis.
Despite a police intervention to disperse the crowd in front of the Beirut government headquarters in the night and dozens of arrests, protesters rallied again in the capital and in other cities from the country. In the morning, the army reopened highways by removing the barricades erected by protesters, who soon set up others.
Volunteers were cleaning downtown Beirut, which looked like a battlefield with smoke coming off tires and dumpsters burning at night. Debris of broken glass from shop windows and banks littered the floor.
70 people arrested for "acts of sabotage"
Security services reported "the arrest of 70 people for acts of sabotage, fire and burglary in the city center". During protests triggered Thursday by the announcement of a new tax - since canceled - the protesters conspire all leaders in their strongholds calling them "thieves" and tearing their portraits.
A protester told a local media in a stronghold of the powerful Shi'ite Hezbollah, "Our fight is against confessionalism, we have been suffering for 30 years because of the political class.They try to present us as scoundrels, but all that 'we do it is to claim our rights'.
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In Tyr, in the south of the country, where the powerful leader of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, was accused of fraud the day before by the demonstrators, dozens of his supporters attacked the protesters on Saturday, according to a witness. In Tripoli, located in the north of the country, a protester, Hoda Sayyour, in her fifties, accused the political class of having "taken our most fundamental rights (...)". "We are dying at the doors of the hospitals!", She denounces. "I will stay in the street (...) They exploit us and do nothing to improve the services."
Corruption and nepotism
While more than a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank, the political class, almost unchanged since the civil war (1975-1990), is accused of corruption and nepotism, seeking to privilege fiscal measures who do not compromise his interests.
It is also accused of business in a country with decaying infrastructure (chronic shortages of electricity and drinking water) and where life is expensive. Friday, schools, universities, banks and public institutions had closed. Banks remained closed on Saturday.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Friday defended the reforms he wants to pass by accusing members of his government coalition of obstructing his efforts. He gave them until Monday to make a clear decision in favor of the reforms. He also insinuated that he had no problem in giving up his seat to anyone who would propose another solution.
"Two big dangers"
Before him, the head of diplomacy, Gebran Bassil, son-in-law of President Michel Aoun, said he was opposed to a resignation from the government, which could "aggravate" the situation.
In a speech, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the heavyweight of Lebanese politics, accused, without naming, officials of trying to throw "responsibility on others", seeming to retort to Saad Hariri. He called "to respond to the resounding message" of the demonstrators, welcoming "a popular movement (...) that exceeds denominational, regional or political.
But he said "do not support a resignation from the government", as well as his refusal to impose new taxes. The country faces "two great dangers: the first would be the financial and economic collapse (...) and the second, a popular explosion," he warned.
With AFP