Thousands of Lebanese Demonstrate Awaiting a New Government

Thousands of people demonstrated again Sunday in Lebanon demanding the fall of the government as clashes continue yet President Michel Aoun hasn’t called on parliamentarians to appoint a new prime minister after the resignation of Saad Hariri.

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Hariri resigned on Oct. 29 prompted by an unprecedented wave of protests against the ruling elite that has swept Lebanon since Oct. 17, tipping it into political turmoil at a time of acute economic crisis.

However, he was asked to stay on in a caretaker capacity by President Aoun. Almost two weeks later, Aoun has not yet set in motion the process of selecting a new prime minister in consultation with the parliament.

Demonstrators hoisting the Lebanese flag gathered at Zeituna Bey on the Beirut seafront, while others, with the national emblem, water skied amid the yachts of the Lebanese elite to highlight corruption and the illegal acquisition of land on the coast.

Others, sitting in small groups, spread tablecloths on the sidewalk with olives, "manakish" (Lebanese pizza) and juices, as a symbol of the seizure of public space, of which it is estimated that only 20 percent is in the hands of the state, while the rest was ceded, through contracts or sales, to private companies.

Meanwhile, between the Riad el Solh and the Martyrs' squares, in the emblematic center of Beirut, young cellists gave free concerts to those present, while a little further away actors simulated a public session of the "tribunal of the revolution."

On the other hand, thousands of people, mostly women, demonstrated near the Ministry of Interior, from where they walked to the city center demanding the right of Lebanese women to give nationality to their families.

This rally took place in response to the call of the Lebanese association "my nationality, my dignity," which demand the right of Lebanese women married to foreigners to pass their nationality to their children.

Demonstrations also took place in other regions of the country such as in the cities of Tripoli, Baalbeck or Sidon, Tyre and Nabatie, demanding as all the fall of the ruling class.