Lebanon, already plunged into a deep political and economic crisis, woke up on Sunday divided around the change of time, part of the country refusing to comply with the government’s decision to delay the transition to the summer time.
The resigning government of Najib Mikati took this decision on Thursday, without giving the reason, two days before the planned transition to summer time like every last Sunday of March.
The measure was interpreted as aimed at shortening the fasting day of the Muslim month of Ramadan, which began on Thursday, angering Christian politicians and religious leaders.
The Maronite patriarchate, the most powerful Christian community in Lebanon, denounced a decision “taken without consultation” and announced that it would not comply with it.
The patriarchy “took this position so as not to accentuate the isolation of Lebanon”, explained to AFP its spokesperson, Walid Ghayad.
The decision caused disruptions to international flights or overseas-related institutions, with many countries switching to daylight saving time on Sunday. The national airline, Middle East Airlines, announced that it was “advancing the scheduled flight times by one hour” from Beirut.
The powerful network of Catholic schools has indicated that its establishments will follow daylight saving time from Monday.
Two of the largest private television channels, MTV and LBCI, also switched to daylight saving time from Saturday to Sunday, explaining that the government’s decision would have had an impact on their operations.
“If the State had taken this decision a month in advance, and not 48 hours, there would have been no problem,” LBCI CEO Pierre Daher told AFP, deploring that the case took “a confessional turn”.
The two main Christian parties, the Lebanese Forces and the Courant National Libre, also protested the decision of the Prime Minister, who has led the country since the mandate of the President of the Republic, a Maronite Christian, expired nearly five months.
The resigning Prime Minister, a Sunni Muslim, did not explain the reasons for his decision.
But a video leaked on social media shows Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a Shia Muslim, asking him not to switch to daylight saving time to allow people observing the Ramadan fast, which lasts from sunrise at sunset, to break it an hour earlier.
The case provoked an avalanche of satirical comments on social networks, with one internet user even wondering if “a new civil war” was going to break out because of this conflict.
26/03/2023 12:23:58 – Beirut (AFP) © 2023 AFP
