The parliamentary session dedicated to discussing the European Union’s plan to grant Lebanon a billion euros in financial aid is convening on Wednesday.
The session is taking place with the participation of opposition MPs and members of the Free Patriotic Movement, who had been boycotting these sessions since the end of former Head of State Michel Aoun’s term in office on October 31, 2022.
The plan, seen as a bribe to be granted to Lebanon in exchange for keeping Syrian migrants on its soil, and widely contested both politically and popularly, is due to be explained by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati who will be the first to speak, before representatives of the various parliamentary blocs take the rostrum.
Members of parliament, particularly from the opposition, are insisting on a roadmap for the gradual return home of Syrian migrants settled in the country.
Announced on May 2nd by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyer, during a visit to Beirut alongside Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, this donation is intended to “contribute to the social and economic stability of the country.”
It should benefit vulnerable communities and security forces, notably the army, with the main aim of putting an end to the departure of illegal Syrian migrants to Cyprus from the Lebanese coast.
The various political forces sharply criticized Mikati, who had rushed to accept the donation. They accused him of wanting to “sell off” the country and keep Syrian migrants, whose presence in Lebanon, with all its crises, can no longer be tolerated.
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