New prime minister Tammam Salam is unlikely to achieve much
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If the rather outdated saying “you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them” were to be applied to Lebanese governments, it is today perhaps more valid than ever. We waited eleven months for our political classes to negotiate a new government, as vicious infighting and polarization allowed the country to drift rudderless towards civil war. Yet, just a few weeks after they announced a new cabinet, we are already paying the price for it. For the past two days Beirut’s already large traffic problems have been exacerbated by the arrival of dozens of MPs at parliament to debate the new Cabinet’s policy statement. For this farcical spectacle, large parts of Downtown Beirut have been blocked off, with dozens of black tinted SUVs guarding endless barricades. For those trying to get to work in the key economic hub of the country, the situation has been unbearable. Hours stuck in
