Berri Slams Mustaqbal, Warns Boycott Endangers Political System

Speaker Nabih Berri has allegedly accused al-Mustaqbal movement of turning against a deal to attend a parliamentary session on the controversial wage hike, warning that lack of quorum puts the entire political system in danger.

According to several local dailies, Berri said this was “not the first time that the movement was revolting against a positive atmosphere or agreements” aimed at resolving certain crises.

Al-Mustaqbal movement bloc leader “MP Fouad Saniora can't even agree with himself,” officials, who visited Berri, quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

He expressed regret that al-Mustaqbal was “paralyzing” parliament sometimes under the pretext of not having a balanced wage scale and at other times claiming that its members were standing in solidarity with the March 14 alliance's Christians who are boycotting the legislative sessions on the pay hike to protest the vacuum at Baabda Palace.

President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ended on May 25 when he left the presidential palace following parliament's failure to elect a successor over differences between the March 8 and 14 camps on a compromise candidate.

But Saniora's press office issued a statement denying that al-Mustaqbal had struck a deal on the numbers of the draft-law.

“We support a wage scale that balances between expenditures and revenues so that Lebanon does not head towards bankruptcy,” it said.

Berri allegedly warned in remarks to his visitors that the boycott of the salary hike sessions was “endangering the entire system.”

“It is no longer about the wage scale and the official exams,” he said.

Parliament once again failed on Tuesday to agree on the pay raise for the public sector over lack of quorum caused by the boycott of the March 14 camp's Christian MPs and al-Mustaqbal, which had reportedly claimed that it was mulling to attend the session.

The failure to approve the draft-law has angered public sector employees and teachers who argued with Education Minister Elias Bou Saab over who had the right to call for the official exams amid a boycott announced by the Syndicate Coordination Committee.

But the SCC struck a late night deal with Bou Saab to postpone the exams from Thursday to Friday in return for the participation of the teachers in monitoring the exams.

The SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, has held onto its demands for a 121 percent increase in the salaries despite a warning by the majority of parliamentary blocs that such a raise would have devastating effects on the economy.

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