Nahhas Challenges Miqati: We’re Not Anyone’s Employees, Let them Try to Make me Resign

Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas slammed Prime Minister Najib Miqati and President Michel Suleiman without naming them, saying that Lebanon isn’t a “Gulf state” where the ministers are just employees that take orders, according to As Safir newspaper published on Monday.

“Let them try to make me resign, if they can guarantee two-thirds of the ministers’ votes in the cabinet,” Nahhas reiterated.

He considered that any change in portfolios would have “enormous political repercussions and the Change and Reform bloc will not accept this.”

Miqati and the ministers of MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement have bickered over the premier’s decision to appoint top civil servants in state posts reserved for Christians without consulting them.

Their dispute worsened during the PM’s visit to Paris last week after Miqati said ministers who don’t want to abide by the cabinet’s decision should resign. But Aoun slammed the premier’s statements calling on him to quit.

Nahhas, who is loyal to Aoun, said that withdrawing confidence from him would jeopardize and threaten Miqati’s cabinet status.

He rejected statements saying that his refusal to sign the transportation allowance violates the constitution, noting that the “contrary is true, as the constitution states that the minister represents the state, should implement laws, and is responsible if he signed a decree that contradicts the law and the international treaties.”

However, Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas said that “a minister can’t be allowed to sidestep the cabinet.”

Nahhas, who is loyal to PM Miqati, said in remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that a minister is tasked with signing the decrees approved by the cabinet and he doesn’t issue them.

Speaker Nabih Berri’s visitors quoted him as saying: “Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ decision not to sign the transportation allowance decree is an obvious sidestepping of the cabinet that could have dangerous repercussions on the cabinet’s working principles.”

“This stance can’t be defended,” Berri said.

According to Berri’s visitors, the minister should sign the decree right after it’s approval by the cabinet regardless of his personal opinion about it.

In January, the cabinet approved a wage hike decree while the transportation and education allowances remain the contention point as Nahhas was tasked by the government to prepare a draft law and refer it to the parliament for adoption, allowing the government to set the minimum rates for transportation and education allowances, thus “legalizing” them.

The minister argues that he will not sign any transportation allowance decision as it should be included in the salary in order to “legalize” it, but when the matter was subject to vote at the cabinet, his proposal won the support of 10 ministers while 19 voted against it.