NNA – The Free Patriotic Movement’s political body held its periodic meeting on Saturday chaired by its Chief, MP Gebran Bassil, following which it issued a statement calling for "breaking the government's constraints and liberating it from the considerations that hinder its work.”
The statement demanded, "holding a session of the Council of Ministers in accordance with constitutional principles, in order to take the decisions required to run the state’s administrations and facilitate people's livelihood, from the faltering financing card, to the 2022 annual budget, to financial recovery, to the catastrophic daily living and social conditions…far-reaching the decisions related to the electoral process.”
“All of this requires the government to meet and assume its responsibilities; otherwise the Movement calls on the Parliament to hold a session of accountability to question the cabinet for the reasons behind its failure to convene,” the statement added.
"The financial collapse that occurred is a natural result of the financial policies implemented by the Central Bank Governor over the past three decades, during which he committed major violations of the monetary and credit law with a well-known political cover,” the FPM statement went on, adding that the “most critical thing is that he is still intentionally obstructing the forensic audit by refusing or delaying to hand over to Alvarez and Marsal the required data, and forcing the company not to continue with its contract…Therefore, the Governor, who has been besieged by seven lawsuits abroad in addition to those at home, must take the initiative to submit his resignation; otherwise, the government must initiate his dismissal because of his numerous proven violations of the monetary and credit law, foremost of which is the failure to preserve the integrity of the national currency...so that an efficient and ethically qualified substitute is appointed.”
“The Central Bank Governor cannot give confidence in the national currency while there is no confidence in him as a person nor in his behavior or work ethics,” the statement underscored.
The Council continued to stress that "the most appropriate place to address any problems in the case of the judicial investigation into the port explosion is the Parliament and the relevant judicial bodies,” adding, “The Parliament is also called upon to pass laws related to social protection, most prominently, the World Bank’s proposal of the Social Safety Net Support Law and the Social Assistance Law for Employees which was presented by the ‘Strong Lebanon’ bloc, in addition to the two law proposals for restoring funds that were transferred abroad and the Capital Control Law.”
On another note, the FPM political body also held the government "responsible for finding quick solutions to the crisis of medicine and health insurance by controlling the greed of some hospital owners and insurance companies who refuse to receive the patient and provide him/her with health coverage unless the difference in the cost of hospitalization is paid in cash in dollars or its equivalent in the exchange market." It also urged the relevant ministries to "address the problem of drug shortage as a result of the greed of some traders, to the extent that many patients are unable to buy their medicines, especially those necessary for chronic diseases, due to the insane rise in their prices as a result of the sudden and unplanned subsidy lifting.”
At the parliamentary elections level, the FPM political body called on the Interior Ministry to complete the necessary preparations for holding the parliamentary elections on time upcoming May 2022, and to take all required measures to establish a few megacenters in Lebanon, given that more than 100 will be established outside Lebanon.
=============R.Sh.
