Lebanon speaker calls for 'disposal from confessional system'

Lebanon must change its confessional political system following the recent explosion at Beirut’s port, parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, said yesterday.

“The most dangerous thing that the port disaster revealed, is the total collapse of the political and economic system’s structure,” Berri told reporters shortly after Mustapha Adib was appointed as the country’s new prime minister.

“There must be a change to this confessional system,” Berri stressed, describing it as “the cause of all ills.”

Confessionalism is a system which distributes political and institutional power proportionally among religious sub-communities. For example, positions in cabinet, parliament, the civil service and other institutions are apportioned according to the relative religious populations.

Lebanon: Half of Beirut children showing signs of trauma after explosion