Portfolio distribution emerges, Aoun wants veto right over 3 key nominations
Preliminary leaks indicate that Nawaf Salam’s government will comprise five representatives of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement (five portfolios, including finance).
The Lebanese Forces will meanwhile get four portfolios, the Free Patriotic Movement will get two and the Progressive Socialist Party will also get two, while the Marada Movement, the Kataeb Party, the ex-FPM MPs and the Tashnag Party will each get one portfolio, the reports said.
As for the rest of the portfolios, there are talks aimed at merging the Change and independent MPs in a single 15-member bloc, which would grant them three portfolios, while the Sunni MPs of the north will be tacitly merged in a manner that would give them a single portfolio, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday.
“There is Sunni wrangling among a number of figures who are insisting on the interior portfolio, seeing as it is the only sovereign portfolio that will be allotted to the Sunni community and that will also oversee the parliamentary elections,” the daily said.
President Joseph Aoun has meanwhile told his visitors that he does not want any share in the government, al-Akhbar added.
He has, however, insisted to have a veto right on the candidates nominated for the foreign affairs, defense and interior portfolios, the newspaper said.
“There are reports that Paul Salam will be nominated for foreign affairs, the lawyer Mohammad al-Alem (close to the president’s adviser Rabih al-Shaer) will be nominated for the interior portfolio, while a former Maronite officer will be nominated for defense,” al-Akhbar added.
The Nidaa al-Watan newspaper meanwhile said that Aoun wants the defense portfolio and that the name of a retired brigadier general is being circulated in this regard.
"The finance portfolio will go to Amal (either to Central Bank acting governor Wassim Mansouri or ex-MP Yassine Jaber), the foreign minister will be nominated by the PM-designate (reportedly a former ambassador), while the interior portfolio will be allocated to a Sunni figure (a former judge or officer)," the daily added.
"And while Hezbollah is reportedly demanding the health portfolio for a doctor who is close to the party, there are growing reports that the energy portfolio will be allotted to someone who is close to the Lebanese Forces," the newspaper said.
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