BEIRUT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2020) The Lebanese parliament has pushed back a session on the 2020 budget by a week as it expects President Michel Aoun to announce the formation of the new government, a leftist lawmaker said on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri declared that this year's budget debate would be rescheduled to January 27-28 after being set for January 22-23.
"The session has been put off until the next week. I guess [lawmakers] are waiting for a new government to arrive before discussing the budget. Doubts are that it will happen the next week either," Bilal Abdallah from the Progressive Socialist Party said.
The Lebanese government resigned last October amid protests calling for reforms to rescue the country's cash-strapped economy. Violent clashes between protesters and riot police restarted this month after a failure to appoint a new cabinet that would satisfy all political rivals.
