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On Monday, the Parliament rapidly approved two bills related to increasing the salaries and social allowances of civil servants and the bonuses for teachers at the Lebanese University. As the heads of Parliament and government, aided by Aounist and Hezbollah MPs, tried to respond to accusations that the session was unconstitutional, and that resources and the 2023 budget were absent, presidential “lobbying” was taking place in the hemicycle and in the Parliament’s offices.
In no time at all, Parliament approved on Monday two bills providing for the opening of lines of credit to finance increases in the salaries of civil servants, as well as bonuses and transport allowances granted to teachers at the Lebanese University.
In fact, it would be more accurate to say that almost half of the Parliament accomplished this task, since less than 70 MPs out of 128 were present in the hemicycle. The latter belong to the parliamentary blocs of Hezbollah, the Amal movement, the Free Patriotic Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party, as well as the blocs led by Tony Frangieh and Faisal Karami and the National Moderation (six MPs from North Lebanon and Akkar, mostly former Haririans, who coordinate with two MPs from Beirut).
On the other hand, several blocs refused to participate in this meeting, and in any legislative session, before the election of a President of the Republic. Those who did not participate are the blocs of the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb party as well as the Renewal and Change blocs, and independent MPs.
Before the opening of the session, 29 opposition MPs issued a statement, stating that the session is not constitutional because it is not possible to approve additional credits in the absence of the 2023 budget, “that the government did not prepare.” They also warned against miscalculated spending in the absence of funding sources, which could worsen the current inflation.
Present and absent MPs
None of the Change MPs took part in the session. Even MPs Melhem Khalaf and Najat Aoun, who have hardly left the hemicycle since January 19, were absent. They have been “camping” at Nejmeh Square since the 11th parliamentary session devoted to the election of a President of the Republic, calling for the holding of consecutive sessions until a new Head of State is elected.
While parliamentary sources claimed that MP Adib Abdel-Massih, a member of the Renewal bloc, participated in the session, the latter published a denial on his Twitter account. He clarified that he is in favor of any approach that aims to guarantee the needs of the public sector, but that he did not take part in the legislative meeting and that he left Parliament once the quorum was assured, without him.
The MPs present on Monday are the same ones who had participated, on April 18, to the legislative session which had extended the mandates of the municipal councils and mukhtars.
Several members of the Aounist bloc took the floor to justify their participation. Before the session, the bloc said in a statement that it had decided to participate “provided that the agenda is limited to the salaries of civil servants without any other article.” It added that the bloc only approves laws that fall within the scope of “necessity legislation that concerns the higher interest of the state.”
Ibrahim Kanaan, Chairman of the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee, and a member of the FPM bloc, argued that “the rights of 400,000 families of military, civil servants and teachers” are the only reason justifying the participation of Aounist MPs at the session.
Berry, Mikati and Fayad
In turn, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berry and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati responded to accusations from the opposition that the session is unconstitutional and that the 2023 budget has still not been submitted to Parliament.
Shortly after the meeting opened, Berry said, in response to parliamentary interventions: “For some, the Constitution means that the government should not meet, and Parliament should not legislate. If we listen to them, we stop working.”
Mikati responded to the many MPs who criticized the fact that the government has still not sent the draft 2023 budget to Parliament. He affirmed that the text is ready and that he will convene the government to successive sessions to approve it.
The Ministry of Finance “will send the final draft of the budget to the Council of Ministers before the end of June for discussion,” continued Mikati.
In addition, some Hezbollah MPs tried to reassure their skeptical colleagues, stressing that the sources of funding for the two laws passed are guaranteed. One of them, Ali Fayad, made the following calculation, which he explained during the session, then to the press. According to him, the airport’s revenues reach USD 150 million per year, “of which 62 million in fresh dollars resulting from the Free Zone. The revenue of the port of Beirut totals USD 15 million per month, of which 10 are transferred to the Treasury. If we add the revenues of the maritime properties which total USD 40 million, we obtain USD 400 million, or nearly LBP 37 thousand billion. This covers the sum required for the bill relating to the increases of the civil servants salaries”.
PSP Bill
It should be noted that, at the beginning of the session, MP Hadi Aboul Hosn, of the PSP, asked to add a third text to the agenda. The text is a double emergency bill, presented by the chairman of the parliamentary health committee, Bilal Abdallah (PSP). It concerns the granting of LBP 4,000 billion to the Ministry of Health, as a contribution to the hospitalization costs of destitute citizens.
However, as soon as the two other bills were voted, MP Alain Aoun, of the FPM, stated that his bloc had agreed to participate in the session on the condition that it would be devoted to the only two articles appearing on the agenda. Berry immediately sent the bill to the committees.
Khalaf: Anesthesia and patching
At the end of the session, and in the absence of representatives of the sovereignist opposition, who all boycotted the meeting, it was mainly MP Melhem Khalaf who took on the task of deconstructing the arguments of March 8, emphasizing that “this session is not constitutional and does not respect the principle of the continuity of public authority.”
He denounced the government’s recourse to the opening of additional credits, in the absence of a budget and the closing of accounts. Khalaf criticized the “patching” policy, pointing out that “the purpose of the session is to give the people the illusion that they are fulfilling their rights when in fact they are merely anesthetizing them, and taking back from them with one hand what they gave them with the other.”
The texts voted
Going back to the two bills approved during the session, they were both presented by MPs Elias Bou Saab, Sajih Attiyé, Ali Hassan Khalil, Jihad Samad and Bilal Abdallah.
The bills concern the approval of the opening of two lines of credit before the publication of the 2023 budget. The first line, of LBP 37,000 billion, aims to guarantee social assistance to all civil servants and retirees from the civil service, and to cover the difference relating to temporary transport allowances for civil servants.
The second aims to open a line of credit of LBP 265 billion to the Ministry of Education to finance gratuities for professors at the Lebanese University, in order to enable them to complete the current academic year.
These bills had been approved during the meeting of the mixed commissions last Thursday.
Presidential lobbying
Five days after the 12th parliamentary session devoted to the election of a president, which failed like those that have preceded it, the presidential file was being discussed behind the scenes, in Nejmeh Square.
At the end of the session, MP Tony Frangieh was seen chatting with MPs who had voted for Jihad Azour. According to some of them, the Zghorta MP was “lobbying” for his father, Sleiman Frangieh, a candidate supported by Hezbollah and the Amal movement. In some of these conversations, he was also accompanied by parliamentarians from these two blocs.
For his part, Parliament Vice-Speaker Elias Bou Saab held a meeting with MPs Elias Jarade (Change) and Oussama Saad and Abdel Rahmane Bizri (Saida). The last three had voted, with Cynthia Zarazir and Halima Kaakour (Change), as well as Charbel Massaad (Jezzine) in favor of former minister Ziad Baroud.
Also at the presidential level, the salons of Parliament have witnessed different analyses of the discussions held by the FPM leader Gebran Bassil in Doha…
