Salam's Small, Homogeneous Cabinet to Put him on Collision Course with March 8
Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam is seeking the quick formation of a small cabinet of around 16 members taking the Baabda Declaration as the policy statement, which will certainly put him at loggerheads with the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance.
Informed sources told several local newspapers that Salam is determined to form the small government whose members are not candidates in the parliamentary elections.
The sources said Salam rejects giving portfolios to ministers with bad reputation or people with no experience in the public sector.
He agreed with President Michel Suleiman during a meeting they held at Baabda palace on Thursday that the presence of women in the new cabinet was necessary, they said.
Both Salam and Suleiman had a united stance in forming a small cabinet whose members should not be parliamentary candidates given that its main mission will be to supervise the elections, the sources added.
Among the names that are being considered for the new government are caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, ex-Minister Jean Obeid, former Minister Ziad Baroud, Raed Sharafeddine, former MP Nasser Nasrallah, Bahij Abou Hamze, Nicolas Nahhas and Mohammed al-Mashnouq.
Salam, who has rejected granting any party a blocking third or veto power and wants a homogeneous government which can be productive, will put him in a collision course with March 8, whose main members – Hizbullah, Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement – have called for a national unity cabinet.
The alliance has also stressed the importance of commitment to “the People, Army, Resistance” Equation in the government's policy statement.
Salam was over the weekend tasked by Suleiman with forming the cabinet after he received the support of 124 out of 128 MPs in two days of binding consultations that the president held at Baabda palace.
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