Bassil: Mikati kept country without govt. for 4 months without talking to us

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday reminded that caretaker PM Najib Mikati had said that there was “no need to form a government,” describing it as a “dangerous constitutional precedent.”

“He set the condition of obtaining (our) confidence in order to form the government, although his designation did not win (our) confidence, which means that he had decided not to form a government,” Bassil said after a parliamentary session dedicated to discussing ex-President Michel Aoun’s letter on the legitimacy of the caretaker cabinet.

“The unique situation we’re living resulted from the fact that Mikati did not find his interest in forming the government and did not also step down, deliberately plunging us into governmental vacuum,” Bassil charged.

Moreover, the FPM chief said that all parties admitted in Thursday’s session that “the cabinet can no longer convene unless there is an emergency, on the condition of the approval of all components.”

He also emphasized that the FPM will not tolerate “hegemony” on it in the issues of cabinet formation and the presidential election.

“Mikati voiced important remarks in the session by saying that President Aoun had informed him from the very first day that our bloc would not grant confidence to the government, and we also repeated this during our meeting with him, so why did he keep the country without a government for four months without forming a government nor talking to us about the issue of confidence? How does he accept being designated without conformity to the National Pact and rejects forming a government unless he is granted confidence that would ensure conformity to the National Pact?” Bassil wondered.