NNA - Free Patriotic Movement leader, MP Gebran Bassil, said that yesterday’s cabinet session was unconstitutional and illegal. 

“It was an execution of the constitution, a fatal blow to the Taif accord, and a stab at the national agreement that had been announced in Parliament,” Bassil told a press conference held in the wake of the "Strong Lebanon" Parliamentary bloc’s weekly meeting in Mirna Chalouhi. 

"Yesterday, they announced that they are issuing decrees without the signature of the President of the Republic based on Article 62 of the Constitution, which entrusts a fully convening Council of Ministers with the powers of the President of the Republic,” Bassil said. 

However, he stressed that his political party “will not accept what happened”, deeming the session a premeditated robbery of the presidency of the republic. He also accused Mikati of intentionally failing to form a cabinet in a bid to reach a point when the council of ministers could confiscate the powers of the president. 

“The President of the Republic is indivisible, as the powers practiced by his person are not to be exercised by anyone on his behalf; as for the powers attached to his signature, they are to be exercised by all the cabinet’s ministers as had been the case between the years 2014 and 2016,” Bassil added. 

He explained further that "a third of the government ministers did not participate in yesterday’s session, which also lacked the required specifications to be considered complete.”

===========R.H.