Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced that the government will continue to fulfill all its constitutional duties, including managing affairs according to the provisions of the constitution and the regulations governing its work and decision-making, as stipulated in the constitution and in Decree No. 2552 dated 1/8/1992 and its amendments (Organizing Cabinet Works), unless the Parliament has a contrary opinion. He considered that "the decree accepting the resignation of the government, which is already resigned under the provisions of the constitution, lacks any constitutional value."
Mikati's position was expressed in a letter addressed to Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri, in which he stated: "On 30/10/2022, Decree No. 10942 was issued accepting the resignation of the government 'which is already resigned' in accordance with the provisions of Article 69 of the constitution due to the commencement of the term of the Parliament, without being accompanied by the issuance of a decree appointing the president which the members of Parliament chose to form the government based on binding parliamentary consultations as prescribed by Article 53 of the constitution.
This decree (the decree accepting the resignation of a resigned government) is undoubtedly declarative and not constitutive, which entails significant results, the most important of which is that managing the business becomes one of the obligations of the resigned government or those deemed resigned without the need for a decision issued by the President in this regard. It is undisputed that managing affairs has risen to the level of commitment and constitutional duty, as enshrined and imposed by Article 64 of the constitution, after it was a constitutional custom necessitated by the need for the continuity of public service and the regular performance of constitutional institutions—the basis of public order in the state—which imposes on every constitutional institution, without delay, the tasks assigned to it, within the powers granted, considering that the vacuum in constitutional institutions contradicts the purpose for which the constitution was established and threatens the system with collapse, placing the country in uncertainty, as stated in the Constitutional Council's decision No. 7/2014 dated 28/11/2014.
It goes without saying that our government, which was considered resigned due to the commencement of the Parliament's term, refusing to carry out its constitutional duties and obligations, including managing its business, under any pretext, constitutes a breach of the duties incumbent upon it and exposes its members, the President included, to constitutional accountability for failing to fulfill their obligations as explicitly stated in Article 70 of the constitution. It is worth recalling that our government, in compliance with these constitutional duties, has previously responded to your explicit invitation to participate and attend the sessions of your honorable council and appeared before this council as a resigned government, participating in the discussion of several draft laws sent by it, most of which were approved by the council, the most prominent being the draft law for the general budget for the year 2022, noting that this law is of great importance as it sets the government's general financial policy and the appropriations that allow it to implement these policies.
Therefore, based on the above, and to avoid constitutional accountability for failing to fulfill the obligations stipulated in Article 70 of the constitution, and to prevent the disruption of public services, the collapse of the system, and the paralysis of the state's work in all its components and constitutional institutions, primarily the legislative authority—the main constitutional authority that will face the problem of the non-issuance and consequently the non-enforcement of any laws it may approve—and since the decree that accepted the resignation of a government that is already resigned legally lacks any constitutional value that negatively affects the requirement of managing affairs, in addition to practicing all that the constitution mandates, I kindly request that you take note of the government's continuation to manage affairs and fulfill all its constitutional duties in accordance with the provisions of the constitution and the regulations that govern its work and decision-making, as stipulated in the constitution and in Decree No. 2552 dated 1/8/1992 and its amendments (Organizing Cabinet Works), unless your esteemed council has a contrary opinion.
