Outgoing Lebanese President Michel Aoun told Reuters on Saturday his nation could be sliding into 'constitutional chaos', with no one in line to succeed him and a cabinet that is operating in a caretaker capacity.
Lebanon's President Michel Aoun addresses the nation from the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon October 13, 2022. Dalati Nohra/Handout via REUTERS
Aoun is set to leave the presidential palace on Sunday, a day before his six-year term ends, but four sessions in the nation's fractured parliament haveWhile Lebanon has faced prolonged presidential vacuums in the past, the country now finds itself on the verge of an unprecedented situation with both a vacant presidency and a caretaker cabinet with limited powers.
Aoun's presidency is inextricably linked in the minds of many Lebanese to their country's worst days since the 1975-1990 civil war, with the financial crisis that began in 2019 and the deadly Beirut port blast of 2020.