The increasing slips in the financial "fault line," which warns of a "devastating earthquake," have begun to expand their "foreshocks." This is evident both in the dollar's wild jumps, reaching almost 36,000 lira on Friday and then retreating yesterday to around 34,500, causing major disruptions in markets and in the fuel sector (where the prices for gasoline, diesel, and gas have nearly two listings almost every day), as well as the ongoing manifestations of a "Stone Age" on the dark horizon: from "zero hour" state electricity provision leaving citizens at the mercy of generators that many have withdrawn from due to their "million-dollar" exorbitant costs, to the continuous turmoil in the telecommunication and internet sector (which is cut off in several areas) due to the strike by OGERO employees. There are fears that this could lead, unless their demands for better salaries are met at the beginning of the week, to the "collapse" of the sector with its ground and cellular wings, as well as internet, causing Lebanon to be cut off from the world and deepening its financial, banking, and economic troubles.
What has heightened fears of the last closure in the dark tunnel into which Lebanon has been plunged is the treatment of the dollar's surge the day before yesterday as potentially being part of the "tools" to heat up the presidential ground. This could be to pressure for the birth of a new government, even in the last days of Aoun's term, to avoid a "clash" over the constitutional ability of a caretaker government to assume the powers of the president during a certain vacancy, or to prepare the ground for a "hot vacancy" used to control the events of the presidential election after November 1 and to promote "realistic options" prioritizing the prevention of the horrific fragmentation of what remains of Lebanon.
Many well-informed circles have begun to express significant concern about what the developments may lead to, in light of the serious ramifications of the expanding financial "crack" and its frightening manifestations on various sectors and aspects of life for the vast majority of miserable Lebanese. There is also immense anxiety that there may be substantial parties who do not oppose placing all "the bombs" in the basket of the presidential elections, following the approach of "after me, the flood," which may be known when it begins but will not be known when it ends or at what cost.
