Five days after the resignation of Hariri as designated Prime Minister, President Aoun announced a meeting of the parlament next week to find a new candidate for the job.
After almost eleven months without government we witness a new try. Aoun will hold on Monday, July 26, a meeting of the parlament to find a new candidate in one day. If this one will be better suited for the task ahead can be doubted.
According to the constitution, the Prime Minister of the country has to be a Sunni. The President has to be a maronite Christ and the speaker of the national assemble Shia. This is part of the political system initiated at the end of the civil war 1990 to embank religious conflicts. But this system also helped the leaders of the different groups to work together to enrich themselfes at the cost of the state and the people.
At the moment, there seem to be three likely candidates for Hariris succession, with Najib Mikati as the favorite. He is a Sunni businessman who build the company Investcom in the 80s and sold it later for 5,5 billion Dollar. 2015, Forbes described him as the richest man in Lebanon. At the moment he is the Member of Parliament for his home town Tripolis.
In the past he worked successfully together with Hezbollah, which accepted him before as Prime Minister. He is as well a personal friend of Syrias leader Assad and prefers good relations with the big neighboring country.
Pressure is increasing on Lebanese politicians to form a new government from all sites at the moment. But, this is barely something new, and it wasn´t quite successful so far.
Simon Dierich 