An unprecedented level of violence since the start of the protest was reached over the weekend in Lebanon, where clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators took place in the heart of Beirut, near the seat of parliament.
After having concentrated throughout the week their anger against the Central Bank and the commercial banks, accused of complicity with the power in the bankruptcy of the country, the demonstrators turned to institutional symbols. And precisely Parliament.
"We have targeted the Chamber of Deputies because it is the symbol of the corruption of the political system which plagues our country and which seeks to continue its work", told France 24 Farouk, an activist mobilized since the beginning of the movement of protest, which ensures that it was the police who provoked the demonstrators.
At least 546 people, protesters but also police officers, were injured in these clashes, according to reports by the Lebanese Red Cross and the Civil Defense, while NGOs and human rights defenders denounced excessive use of force by the police in recent days. France 24 correspondents, however, reported that the clashes on Sunday were less intense than those observed the previous day.
"They don't listen to us when we demonstrate peacefully"
While the protest, which had decreed from January 13 a "week of anger", stood out for its peaceful nature, even good-natured at the beginning of the mobilization, it seems to change momentum. A change that comes at a time when the economic situation is deteriorating day by day and the political parties are struggling to agree on the formation of a new government.
"The political class has not given up on its methods, it is quite irresponsible while the country is going through an acute crisis, notes Tarek Abboud, political scientist and researcher specializing in international issues at the Lebanese University, interviewed by France 24. She is divided over the formation of the government and the shares of each side instead of saving the country. "
Lebanon has been deadlocked since the appointment on December 19 of Hassan Diab as Prime Minister following Saad Hariri's resignation at the end of October under pressure from the street. Negotiations between the major parties with a view to forming a new government have not yet succeeded, in particular due to disagreements around the representation of each force in the future cabinet.
"What is astounding, and probably very dangerous, is that the political class lives in denial, and the non-formation of a new government is one of the signs", explains to France 24 Joseph Bahout, researcher at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and specialist in the Middle East. He added: "People are getting poorer quickly, the daily problems of withdrawing money and banking are extremely difficult, society is starting to suffer and, in this context, violence is starting to appear."
Frustrated by political maneuvers and economically cornered, in particular because of the shortage of American dollars in the country and a strong depreciation of the Lebanese pound, which led Lebanese banks to drastically reduce withdrawals and transfers abroad, a part of the protesters noted that the peaceful option will not bend their leaders.
"We have nothing more to lose, the Lebanese people are tired, we are not by nature for the confrontation, but the political leaders do not want to understand and do not listen to us when we demonstrate peacefully", accuses Perla Joe , one of the figures of the dispute, questioned by France 24.
And to explain the reasons for the escalation: "It has been more than three months that we have been demonstrating and demanding the formation of a government composed of technocrats and independents capable of working in the interest of the countries, but instead, politicians are still trying to impose their political methods on us. The people are hungry, people are creaking in indifference, some are killing themselves because they cannot provide needs of their children, and others die because they cannot afford care! "
"We don't want the same people hiding behind new faces"
An opinion shared by Mohamad Dankar, another protester questioned by France 24. "It is a farce to accuse the demonstrators of causing riots, the mobilization is rocking in escalation because the power has not responded to any of our demands, and prefers to tear themselves apart over the sharing of ministerial portfolios, "he says. We still see them engaging in sterile negotiations and seeking to make arrangements under the table, while anger is raging and the population is not no longer manages to support himself. "
Mohamad Dankar assures that the demonstrators have no other choice but to continue the movement. "We will stay on the street to make our voices heard in the face of a corrupt power that has violated the Constitution for several decades, until the formation of a government made up of independent figures and technocrats," he said. "We don't want the same people hiding behind new faces, and the very people who are trying to destroy us by using disproportionate force against the movement."
According to Joseph Bahout, the Lebanese political class, "who thought he was escaping the crisis by passing between the drops", finds himself trapped between a street which is growing more and more thundering and a catastrophic economic situation and also caught up by its own tensions and frictions.
"It is a power at the bottom which is out of breath, which is not yet dying, but which is clinging to the country, when the reality is elsewhere, he believes. The Lebanese are getting impatient, and it it is not sure that the formation of a government changes anything, because the economic crisis has its own logic and will go to the end. "
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