Thousands protest economic reform plan

Tens of thousands of Lebanese demonstrated in Beirut on Wednesday to protest against a government economic reform plan. According to the Ministry of the Interior, some 50,000 people turned up at the demonstration. Protest organisers, however, put the figure in the hundreds of thousands, arguably making it the biggest social protest in the country’s history. The march came in response to a call by the Union Coordination Committee to protest an economic reform plan prepared by the cabinet earlier this year. The demonstration was supported by a range of political forces, including Hizbullah, the Communist Party, the Free Patriotic Movement, the Amal Movement and the Lebanese Democratic Party. Demonstrators protested mainly against a proposed tax hike and a controversial draft employment law that would allow the hiring of civil servants on a short-term, contractual basis. The proposed legislation would also decrease amounts paid for end-of-service pensions. Parliamentarian Saad Hariri, head of the ruling Future Movement and son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, called the protest a “Syrian-backed attempt to destabilise Lebanon”. Youth and Sports Minister Ahmad Fatfat told a press conference that demonstrators’ motives were “political, not economic”, adding that they wanted “to topple the government… without providing a suitable alternative.” According to protest organisers, however, popular anger has accumulated against the proposed reform plan, which the government is keen to implement in order to reassure donor countries. Protestor and head of the High-School Teachers' League Hanna Gharib said: “We’ve come from all over Lebanon to say ‘Yes’ for the elimination of the plan for contractual jobs and ‘yes’ for protecting our rights to medical care, salaries and end-of-service pensions, which the government is planning to cut.” Security was tight at the demonstration as Internal Security Forces and army troops, some wearing civilian clothes, were deployed along the route of the march. Many schools, shops and businesses, meanwhile, were closed throughout the country, in solidarity with protestors.