The legitimacy of the transitional government

Many of those who criticize our movement’s political program point out the absence of a popular mandate obtained through elections which would give it, in their point of view, a certain legitimacy. In reality, elections are nothing but a means by which the regime simulates an engagement of the people in the process of renewal of its own legitimacy. Any actual change in the socio-political regime is the result of both the collapse of a certain authority, and the formation of a new political alternative.

For example, did the government of Hassan Diab enjoy any legitimacy? Except for some protests, a majority of the Lebanese accepted this government that had no political project, and that took effective decisions, such as . halting the payment of Eurobonds, and the declaration of a state of emergency. Its legitimacy stems from the legitimacy of the sectarian leaders who formed it or accepted it.

The formation of the transitional government is in itself the implementation of the transfer of legitimacy and authority from the sectarian leaders to the civil state, embodied by this government, and legitimized from the moment of its creation, if there is no popular opposition to it.

The transitional government will have a mandate of 18 months to establish the legitimacy on which it was formed – that is, the legitimacy of the civil state – through its effectiveness in managing the transitional period.