Geagea says current state structure cannot continue

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said overnight that “Lebanon cannot continue with the current state structure if we want to have an active, unified and inclusive Lebanese state.”

Geagea was responding to an LBCI question about the “solution” after Lebanon’s repeated presidential election crises and whether there is a “major problem in the system and in the structure of this state.”

“After a five-year suffocating and lethal crisis and eight months of presidential vacuum we go to a presidential election session … that ends with obstruction. What more are we waiting for?” Geagea added.

“Therefore, we conclude from today’s session that the Lebanese state cannot continue with its current structure and that we are in dire need of another structure that would rescue us from the swamp in which we have been languishing for years,” the LF leader went on to say.

“At every presidential juncture we enter in vacuum for lengthy months due to obstruction, and the same happens when we are designating a premier, forming a government or taking any decision in Cabinet, which has led to the crisis that we are living today,” Geagea lamented.

His remarks come after a 12th presidential election session failed to produce a new president amid major political disputes between the two parties.

Crisis-hit Lebanon has already been without a head of state for more than seven months, and the previous attempt to elect a president was held on January 19.

The international community has urged politicians to elect a consensus presidential candidate who can help the country enact reforms required to unlock billions of dollars in loans from abroad.

On top of lacking a president, Lebanon has been governed by a caretaker Cabinet with limited powers for more than a year.