Jumblat: Excluding Parties, Veto Power in Cabinet Have Proved their Failure
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed on Monday the need to form a new government in Lebanon in order to end the suffering of the people who are laboring under economic and social problems.
He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “Veto power in government and excluding parties from cabinet have proved their failures in the past.”
“Excluding any power from cabinet is useless,” he said in reference to some demands within the March 14 camp that Hizbullah not be included in a new government.
“Granting a bloc veto power in cabinet has also proved its ineffectiveness because the concept was created at a time when disputes were ongoing over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,” added the MP.
Veto power has played out its purpose, remarked Jumblat in reference to the March 8 camp's demand that it be granted such an authority in a new government.
“The concept of excluding others should not be kept out of the government formation process,” he stated.
“Aren't the political powers noticing that the public debt is growing while a serious plan to confront it has not been devised?” wondered the PSP leader.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said earlier on Monday that the new cabinet must not include Hizbullah “because the government must not have a party that is deeply involved in the conflict in Syria.”
Hizbullah fighters publicly intervened in the conflict in Syria in April, siding with President Bashar Assad's regime against the mainly Sunni rebels.
The March 8 alliance has meanwhile been demanding that it be granted veto power in cabinet.
Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam has repeatedly rejected the proposal, saying that such a power will render the government ineffective.
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