Hundreds of Beruit residents marched to their city’s port on Tuesday to honor those killed in last week’s blast.
Photo: Sam Tarling For The Wall Street JournalBEIRUT—Lebanon’s leaders shifted their focus Tuesday to forming a new government, a day after the country’s cabinet resigned amid ongoing protests demanding political change in the aftermath of last week’s deadly explosion in Beirut.
President Michel Aoun has asked departing Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his cabinet to remain in office as a caretaker government with limited powers until a new administration can be formed. With no apparent agreement on who should be the next prime minister, Mr. Aoun was left with little choice but to keep Mr. Diab’s government in place, analysts said.
“We’re in a free fall, into the abyss frankly,” said Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. “If we don’t get a government in place quickly and they begin to provide some sort of a road map for getting out of this abyss, the only way is down.”
Any new government will have to contend with Lebanon’s worst economic crisis in decades, with an insolvent banking system, rising unemployment and a severe shortage of foreign currency.
Graffiti blames Lebanon’s government for the explosion in Beirut.
Photo: hannah mckay/ReutersIt will also have to pass muster with outraged protesters who are demanding the downfall of the country’s entire political elite, whom they hold responsible for years of corruption and misrule. In addition, Lebanon is under pressure from donor countries that have demanded economic and political reforms before it receives a bailout.
Mr. Diab tendered his government’s resignation Monday after days of protests demanding justice for the more than 150 people killed in the blast.
The dissolution of the government did little to calm the sorrow and rage among ordinary Beirut residents, hundreds of whom attended a somber march to their city’s port to honor those killed in the blast. Organizers read out the names of the dead to the crowd assembled in front of the wreckage of the port.
Many wore white and held signs including one saying, “My government murdered my people.”
Hassan Hammoud, a 45-year-old restaurant owner, was still wearing bandages over his eye and on his left elbow from wounds sustained during the explosion as he walked with the procession. He choked back a tear as he narrated how the blast destroyed his business and hurt him and his young son.
“Everyone responsible for this disaster should be punished, not only this government. They ruled the country for only nine months. How can we blame them?” said Mr. Hammoud. “It’s the whole regime, the whole system,” he said.
When the vigil ended, the crowd shifted and marched toward downtown Beirut, with some chanting, “Revolution!”
Antigovernment protesters threw stones the Lebanese parliament in Beirut on Tuesday.
Photo: Sam Tarling for The Wall Street JournalLater, outside Lebanon’s parliament headquarters, security fired tear gas at some demonstrators who hurled rocks.
For many in Lebanon, the resignation symbolized the country’s lurch from crisis to crisis. Mr. Diab’s government came to power in January following antigovernment protests that began in late 2019.
“There was never a government. It is only an eight-month facade for the six men ruling the country to hide behind,” said Charbel Nahas, a former telecom minister who now leads the opposition party Citizens in a State.
Many members of Lebanon’s political class are former warlords from the country’s civil war in the 1980s whom Lebanese see as responsible for decades of corruption and neglect that culminated in last week’s explosion.
In recent days, protesters in Beirut have chanted, “All of them means all of them,” a call for the wholesale ejection of Lebanon’s political elite. The phrase has been a rallying cry for antigovernment demonstrations since 2015.
Demonstrations continued Tuesday near the site of an explosion last week at Beirut's port area.
Photo: alkis konstantinidis/ReutersThe formation of a new government will require the agreement of the country’s various factions, representing a range of religious and political groups. In the past, talks to form a government have continued for months.
On Tuesday, Nabih Berri, the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, called for an urgent meeting of the parliamentary bloc he controls, according to the state-run National News Agency.
Lebanon’s constitution is designed to share power among the country’s Christians, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and other religious groups. Parliament contains an even number of Christians and Muslims. Historically, the prime minister has been a Sunni, the speaker a Shiite and the president a Christian. Political parties have monopolized the representation of religious groups, and a handful dominate the political scene.
Last week’s explosion devastated much of central Beirut.
Photo: thaier al-sudani/ReutersForeign powers are also expected to play a role in the political wrangling. Shiite armed group Hezbollah, also Lebanon’s most powerful political party, is backed by Iran, while Saudi Arabia has ties with the country’s Sunni politicians. The U.S. is also engaged in a pressure campaign aimed at reducing the influence of Iran and Hezbollah in the country.
Lebanon is facing other challenges, such as the coronavirus pandemic, with the health ministry reporting a record 295 new cases of the virus and four deaths on Monday. The country’s hospitals have been overwhelmed by patients infected with the virus along with thousands of people injured in the explosion and in confrontations with police.
Additionally, the World Food Program expects the price of food in Lebanon to skyrocket as food stocks at Beirut’s port, the country’s main entry point for goods, were decimated by the blast.
Write to Jared Malsin at jared.malsin@wsj.com
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