Mikati, FPM trade barbs over cabinet decree signatures

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the Free Patriotic Movement have attacked each other over the signatures needed for decrees issued by the caretaker cabinet.

“What MP Jebran Bassil said today regarding the need for the signatures of all ministers on decrees and his objection against the presence of several signatures by the prime minister represent an illegal viewpoint that has mundane political motives,” Mikati’s office said in a statement.

“This contradicts with the constitution’s clear texts,” the office added.

“As for his claim about the use of a minister’s signature and copying it from memos received by the premiership, this is something fabricated by Mr. Bassil’s political imagination,” the office said, accusing Bassil of “attributing baseless matters to the government represented by its premier” for “exposed political motives.”

The FPM-led Strong Lebanon bloc meanwhile said that “what happened in parliament of an attempt to pass an illegal and forged decree represented a major scandal that belongs to the series of violations that are being practiced by Najib Mikati’s incomplete government.”

“He is breaching the limits of political action ethics and he has not settled for bypassing the presidential post but is also finding it easy to counterfeit, as if things are lawless and there is no accountability in the country,” the bloc added.