AFP :
The resignation of Lebanon’s government under pressure from the street looked set to ease a two-week-old nationwide lockdown but protesters vowed they would keep pushing for deeper change.
President Michel Aoun has not yet accepted Saad Hariri’s resignation as prime minister, with no clear solution emerging to a fresh political crisis that has drawn warnings from Lebanon’s foreign partners.
On the ground, security forces reopened several roads that had remained mostly blocked by protesters since a proposed tax on calls via
messaging apps sparked a wave of demonstrations on October 17.
The unprecedented mobilisation swelled into a popular drive to remove a political elite which has remained largely unchanged since the end of the civil war three decades ago.
Euphoric protesters experiencing a rare moment of national unity have pilloried politicians of all parties, calling for better public services, an end to rampant corruption and a complete overhaul of sectarian-based politics.
When a sombre Hariri appeared on television Tuesday to announce his resignation, crowds erupted into celebratory chants across the country but warned that the government’s fall was only one of their demands.
“The resignation is not enough to get us off the streets,” said Charbel, a 26-year-old draped in a Lebanese flag, who was still protesting in central Beirut on Wednesday.
The resignation of Lebanon’s government under pressure from the street looked set to ease a two-week-old nationwide lockdown but protesters vowed they would keep pushing for deeper change.
President Michel Aoun has not yet accepted Saad Hariri’s resignation as prime minister, with no clear solution emerging to a fresh political crisis that has drawn warnings from Lebanon’s foreign partners.
On the ground, security forces reopened several roads that had remained mostly blocked by protesters since a proposed tax on calls via
messaging apps sparked a wave of demonstrations on October 17.
The unprecedented mobilisation swelled into a popular drive to remove a political elite which has remained largely unchanged since the end of the civil war three decades ago.
Euphoric protesters experiencing a rare moment of national unity have pilloried politicians of all parties, calling for better public services, an end to rampant corruption and a complete overhaul of sectarian-based politics.
When a sombre Hariri appeared on television Tuesday to announce his resignation, crowds erupted into celebratory chants across the country but warned that the government’s fall was only one of their demands.
“The resignation is not enough to get us off the streets,” said Charbel, a 26-year-old draped in a Lebanese flag, who was still protesting in central Beirut on Wednesday.
