A senior ministerial source told CNN he believed the government would be reduced to caretaker status by Monday night. Three cabinet ministers have already quit, along with seven members of parliament.
Lebanon was already suffering through its worst economic crisis in decades, coupled with rising coronavirus rates, and the government was plagued by accusations of corruption and gross mismanagement.
Tuesday’s blast, which damaged or destroyed much of the Lebanese capital and was linked to a long-neglected stash of potentially explosive chemicals, was the last straw for many Beirut residents.
Now the country will be tasked with finding a third prime minister in less than a year to contend with the spiraling crises Lebanon faces on a number of fronts.
Lebanon’s currency has lost 70% of its value since anti-government protests began in October. Poverty has soared, with the World Bank projecting that more than half of the country’s population would become poor in 2020.
Lebanon’s financial woes were exacerbated earlier this year by government-imposed lockdowns, which were designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic but also brought the country’s ailing economy to a screeching halt.
Diab’s ministers had repeatedly accused the ruling class of disrupting their plans for reform. Politicians aligned with the country’s banking elite torpedoed the government’s IMF-endorsed economic program, which had been expected to dig into bank profits.