Lebanon’s new government received Parliament’s vote of confidence on Monday night, 10 days after being formed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
100 MPs attended the parliamentary session on Monday and voted on granting the government the necessary confidence vote.
Out of the total attendees, 85 MPs voted in favor of the new government and 15 voted against it.
Minutes before the session’s results were announced by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at around 9 PM, PM Mikati made a speech in which he revealed that negotiations with the International Monetary Fund had begun.
Mikati urged Parliament to complete the implementation of capital control and pledged to tackle the maritime border dispute with Israel.
Earlier during the day, at the start of the session, the PM read out his government’s mission statement, in which he pledged to work on halting the collapse, restoring stability and trust in Lebanon, and providing help for those affected by the Beirut Port Explosion.
Notably, Mikati was only able to read out a portion of the ministerial statement before Speaker Berri asked him to cut it short, citing the electricity problem at the Parliament headquarters.
