Renewed Protests in Lebanon
Overview of protestors in Beirut, 2019. (Wikipedia)
Protests in Lebanon demanding an end to the economic crisis have rekindled across the country following a dive in the value of the country’s currency this month. Protestors have used tires to block off three main roads leading into the cities of Zouk, Jal al-Dib, and al-Dawra, in addition to the capital Beirut. In the city of Tyre, a man attempted to publicly self-immolate in a striking parallel to Mohammad Bouaziz’s suicide on December 17, 2010—an act largely marked as the beginning of the Arab Spring protests of 2011.
The Lebanese pound has plunged a record low of 15,000 to the dollar, subsequently tripling the price of consumer goods in the country as inflation and prices of basic goods have skyrocketed in the country, which imports more than 80 percent of its basic goods. Fights have broken out in grocery stores as shops were instructed to close for a 24 hour period on March 17. While the country’s currency had dropped 90 percent after the October Revolution in 2019, it has lost an additional 25 percent of its value over the past few weeks. This currency dive also follows Lebanon’s historic default on its $1.2 billion Eurobond debt to the International Monetary Fund last year. The country’s current debt totals 170 percent—the highest debt to GDP ratio in the world.
Similar to the 2019 October Revolution, protests in recent weeks have centered not only on the country’s economic troubles but also its political turmoil. Lebanese Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab has threatened to quit to put pressure on those forming a new government. Since last August, the government has been largely toothless since Diab’s cabinet resigned en masse following the summer explosion in Beirut that killed more than 200 and displaced upwards of 300,000 people. Lebanese Prime Minister-delegate Saad al-Hariri was nominated in October 2020, but he was prevented from forming a new government by President Michel Aoun.
On December 1, 2020, the World Bank warned that Lebanon’s economic struggle would manifest into a “prolonged depression” throughout 2021, a sentiment largely reflected by recent statements from the Lebanese people. As remarked by Ahmad Shuman, a protester frustrated at the small crowd partaking in grocery demonstrations, “Where are the people? Come down, we are hungry, we are fed up!”
On Monday, United States State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter, told reporters in Washington, “Lebanon’s political leaders need to put aside their partisan brinkmanship and form a government that will quickly implement critical and long-needed reforms, restore investor confidence, and rescue the country’s economy.”