Issued by the media office of Prime Minister Najib Miqati, the following statement reads: "The 'Free Patriotic Movement' does not cease to create debates and distort facts on the verge of the end of the term, in a clear attempt to divert attention from the failures that have marked the past years in all areas and to cement the notion of 'they did not let us' behind which 'the Current' repeatedly hides to justify its failures in the numerous files it has handled, the most important of which is the electricity file.
In the latest of these attempts, 'the Current' issued a statement today that can only be described with the popular saying 'remove what’s in you and place it in me.' To clarify the facts, we reiterate the following:
First: 'The Free Patriotic Movement' claims that the Prime Minister-designate disdains the constitution and refuses to do what is necessary to form the government. This is, in itself, a disdain for the indisputable facts. The Prime Minister visited the President of the Republic the day after the parliamentary consultations ended and presented him with a government formation in accordance with his constitutional powers and what he deems appropriate, and began discussing it with His Excellency the President. However, the deliberate leaking of the formation to the media, and what ensued with the intentional interference of the President’s entourage in the matter, is a known fact and cannot be concealed by 'the Current's' statement.
Second: The height of political immorality is for 'the Current' to claim that the Prime Minister bears a large part of the responsibility for the disaster resulting from the electricity cut. As if President Miqati, not 'the Free Patriotic Movement,' has managed the Ministry of Energy through five successive ministers over the past 17 years, costing the treasury an estimated $40 billion in waste in the sector. Today, 'the Current' wants to lecture on political integrity, believing that the memory of the Lebanese is flawed, just like the failed dams on which 'the Current's' ministers wasted millions of dollars, which then flowed into the earth and its funds into the pockets of beneficiaries.
Moreover, the claim from 'the Current' that the Prime Minister is obstructing the implementation of the electrical plan is a question that should be directed to the current Minister of Energy, who requested the withdrawal of the plan from the agenda of the Cabinet meeting, and it has not returned since.
The Prime Minister does not reject any unconditional aid to help Lebanon resolve the electricity crisis. On the contrary, he welcomes any aid conforming to the technical specifications applicable at electricity production plants in Lebanon. There is no value in any political grandstanding on this file, which is known along with its conditions and rules.
Third: The height of rudeness is for 'the Free Patriotic Movement' to claim that the Prime Minister is not doing what he should do to activate the judiciary in the port crime. The question is: what is required from the Prime Minister other than reinforcing and supporting the judiciary in its mission, unless 'the Current' wants the Prime Minister to follow its example of political interference in the judiciary.
In conclusion, political immorality and the crafting of statements will not obscure the responsibility of 'the Free Patriotic Movement' and its leader in what has befallen the term as it approaches its end. The opportunities that were available for rescue have been thwarted by 'the Current' due to its repeated conflicts with a large segment of the Lebanese people, who are now looking forward to a new term that can lift them from their current predicament.
Those who incite the publication of such statements should be ashamed, thinking that these absurdities can deceive the Lebanese, and should repair the shattered glass of their own home from the inside before the outside, instead of directing their arrows at the people who are working sincerely to rescue the country from the crisis it is in."
