Two statements were issued by the media office of the caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, within less than 12 hours, to respond to the Free Patriotic Movement’s spokespersons in the media. In the first of them, issued on Saturday night, he named an official in the movement by name, while in the second he did not know the names of the platforms, and the response was limited to what he called “the Aounist media, passion, affiliation and funding.”
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It is one of the rare times when conflict enters the framework of direct responses. Since the previous debates over powers in the government formation file, and before that the debates with Energy Minister Walid Fayyad over electricity offers, the media war between the two parties has always been limited to sources, leaks, and responses in elaborate diplomatic and political language.
The debate entered the land of the direct political contest. The Free Patriotic Movement opened a declared war once morest the prime minister, on the background of his call to hold a government session tomorrow, Monday. Mikati defends the session with all his media tools, including the attack. He did not leave a loophole without a response, in order to prevent the transformation of the political clash into a sectarian fight, in which the positions of the sects and their powers are used in the war.
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The battle, in its potential, is affecting the powers and privileges of the sects. Although Mikati limits the justifications for holding the session to the living framework, Christians find themselves in the position of being “excluded” from ruling. On the other hand, the necessities of running the public utility require a ministerial session with specific provisions, but they contain political messages, not least of which is that the country, in light of the stagnation in the process of electing a president, is able to move forward, and does not stop at intransigence and obstruction of the course of electing the president.
The presidential file was spinning in a vicious circle, with a deadly stalemate called “waiting.” The convening of the session will not represent a normalization of the vacuum, in light of the strict Christian positions. He will shuffle the cards, respecting the existing charter and customs to protect balances, including the powers and privileges of the sects. Accordingly, the more the media war intensifies, the more it will push towards consensus that will lead to filling the presidential vacancy, which is believed to be activated within a few weeks.
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