Aoun leaves the presidential palace and Lebanon enters a political vacuum
Michel Aoun left the presidential palace in the presence of his supporters.
dad
Yesterday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun left the presidential palace in the presence of thousands of his supporters, ahead of the end of his term by signing a decree considering the caretaker government to have resigned, in a step that further complicates the political vacuum the country is entering.
With no candidate capable of obtaining the required majority in Parliament, the presidential vacancy threatens to deepen the country's crises in light of an accelerating economic collapse three years ago, and with the inability to form a government due to political divisions since May.
To the support of thousands of his supporters in the Free Patriotic Movement who gathered outside the presidential palace in the Baabda area overlooking Beirut, Aoun began his speech by saying, "Today this morning I sent a letter to Parliament and signed a decree considering the government to have resigned."
He added, "Today is an important end, not the end of an era. Today, one stage ends and another stage begins that requires struggle and a lot of work in order to get out of our crises."
Aoun left the presidential palace a day before the end of his presidential term at midnight Monday-Tuesday.
The official farewell ceremony for President Aoun began at the Republican Palace in Baabda, where he went out between two rows of Ramaha, shook hands with senior officials and advisers, then reviewed a battalion of the Republican Guard, and left Baabda Palace heading towards his home in Rabieh.
Starting on Tuesday, Lebanon will enter a new phase of the presidential vacuum, in which, according to the constitution, the powers of the president must be transferred to the Council of Ministers, with the failure of deputies during the previous four sessions to elect an alternative.
However, political differences since the parliamentary elections have prevented the formation of a new government, while the caretaker government continues to exercise its duties.
For weeks, Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati exchanged accusations of obstructing the formation of a government as a result of counter-conditions and conditions.
In a letter he addressed to Parliament yesterday after signing a decree to consider the government to have resigned, Aoun accused Mikati of being “not willing to form a government, but rather to continue at the head of a caretaker government.”
He expressed his objection to “such a government exercising the powers of the Presidency of the Republic as an agency until the election of a new President of the Republic.”
Although Aoun's move is a precedent in Lebanon's history since the adoption of the constitution in 1926, constitutional experts minimize its repercussions and place it within the framework of the power struggle between the two men.
In response to Aoun, Mikati said that signing the decree "lacks any constitutional value."
He informed Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in a book, "The government will continue to conduct business and carry out all its constitutional duties."
The current government has practically been resigned since the parliamentary elections in May.
Usually, the President of the Republic issues a decree declaring the government resigned on the same day he signs the decrees appointing the prime minister and forming a new government.
Aoun arrived yesterday afternoon at his new residence in the Rabieh area, northeast of Beirut.
Aoun's supporters had gradually gathered since yesterday morning in the vicinity of the presidential palace, after dozens had spent the night in the place, according to AFP photographers.
Some of them carried the orange banners of the movement, Lebanese flags, and pictures of Aoun from the various stages of his military and political career.
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