Beirut, Lebanon – The cabinet in Lebanon, Karim Suwaid, was elected as a ruler of the Central Bank – a candidate -backed by the bank in the country and a businessman that many say is a symbol of the Lebanese distress suffering.

Among the brutal war with Israel, Lebanon is in urgent need of reconstruction and recovery. Since 2019, Lebanon has suffered through one of the worst economic crises in modern history. State services were beaten, including the electricity sector, and left those who can afford the cost of relying on private generators.

The World Bank estimates that $ 11 billion is required for this position, and the next ruler is decisive to open money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which will encourage more support from the international community.

On Wednesday, the reports of Lebanese media, Suwaid, the founder of the private investment company in Bahrain, bears Namuzit Partners, as the candidate.

The sources told Al -Jazeera that although the International Monetary Fund did not comment on the candidates, the proposed Sweden policies do not coincide with the required reforms.

“Another Rad Salam”

Two camps appeared in response to Suwaid’s nomination.

On the one hand, banks, banking baccards, and most important traditional parties – including ideological opponents such as Hezbollah and Lebanese forces – and President Joseph Aoun, who is his economic advisor, Farouj Nerjwizian, are a member of the Board of Directors of Sweden Investment Company.

On the other hand, some reformist ministers, independent deputies, and non -governmental organizations with reformist thinking, and skeptics, including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

After voting on Sweden, Salam delivered a speech that he admits that he and other ministers have reservations about the new appointment.

“Any ruler must adhere to the financial policy of our reform government, as expressed by the ministerial statement [that includes] Salam said that a new program with the International Monetary Fund, the restructuring of banks, and a full plan in accordance with the best international standards to preserve the rights of depositors.

Sweden has not yet commented on what his plan will be for the Central Bank.

But those who oppose Sweden say it is very close to power and its policies prefer the bank lobby to an overwhelming majority. The son of former Prime Minister Najib Mikati is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Investment Company in Sweden.

“They are trying to bring another Salameh,” said Mohamed Farida, Economic Adviser to the Depositors Union, a non -governmental organization that argues that banks and not depositors must bear the responsibility for the 2019 financial crisis.

Salama is the former central bank ruler who was arrested in September due to financial crimes in Lebanon and is the subject of many financial investigations in five different European countries.

Each minister will be a “responsible”

It enters Lebanon in the sixth year of the devastating economic crisis and strongly needs relief funds from the International Monetary Fund, which has developed many reforms that Lebanon needs to submit an application to receive these funds.

A parallel battle was accountable for tens of billions of economic losses on a dead end for five years, as the political class, supported by the bank lobby, focused on avoiding any effort to issue reforms, the International Monetary Fund is necessary to cancel the lock of $ 3 billion in relief funds.

The battle is mainly due to who should bear responsibility for the 2019 economic collapse and bear losses.

The pro -bank side believes that the state is primarily responsible for collapsing after failing to pay on Europonds. To restore depositors ’money, they say, the state must pay banks through measures such as selling state assets. This is the side that supports Sweden.

Sweden’s ideas of the state are believed to be explained in the 2023 paper, funded by his investment company, which recommends hair poetry of up to 90 percent, which would fall on the depositors.

Critics say this will allow bankers and politicians who support them and benefit from them to escape accountability.

“This will mainly motivate them to take the same behavior [that caused the economic and banking crisis] Wild Marush, a professor of economics at the American Lebanese University, said with the same risks.

The pro -reform side, which includes the Union of Depositors, says that the accumulation of losses on the state will go bankrupt and harm the citizens who committed anything wrong, so commercial banks must put the losses to pay the depositors.

These reforms will strike the most difficult banks, forcing some banks to fully integrate or close.

At a press conference in the emergency situations invited by the Federation of Depositors on Wednesday to oppose the choice of Sweden, Heim Kakour, one of 13 Lebanese deputies, was elected in 2022 on the post -revolution feelings calling for reform: “We will carry every minister responsible for the nomination of a central bank ruler affected by the country with $ 76 billion in losses.”

The number 76 billion dollars is an estimate, as the exact number is unknown. During the crisis, many depositors withdrew their money while the Lebanese lira was declining, while some of the richest money in the country had transferred their money abroad.

“It is a mafia”

In 2020, the government of Hassan Diab proposed a solution that experts told Al -Jazeera that Al -Jazeera had been sword with the specifications of the International Monetary Fund. But the solution is out of its course through political stagnation, and the depositors suffered.

With banks’ imprisonment and citizens were unable to withdraw their money, the exchange rate fell by more than 95 percent. Before the crisis, the lira stood at $ 1500 for the US dollar – today, $ 1 equal to 89,000 pounds.

With the presence of many previous middle class in the country, some citizens forced this Bank contract To withdraw their money.

After the vast destruction caused by the latest Israeli war on Lebanon, the need for reconstruction increases pressure. With the increase in this pressure, the battle is about who will lead the central bank in Lebanon because this number will strongly affect the economic and banking agenda Lebanon in the coming years.

The banking team, which supports Sweden, Anousihi, has led the chairman of the SGBL group.

Sehnaoui also funds the Lebanese media and is believed to be close to many politicians. It is widely believed to support Jnoud al-authority, a gang of men who quote from the Christian Bible and gain a bad reputation to target the LGBTQ community in Lebanon with violence.

In the period before the vote for the central bank ruler, Megaphone and Daraj reported that Sehnaoui had filed lawsuits against them.

Critics say that the deep influence of bankers who are bound by bankers such as Sehnaoui on the Lebanese system is the reason that the state is struggling to serve its citizens.

“It is a mafia and [the bankers] “They are the few,” Food Demp, a lawyer and member of the depositors union, told Al -Jazeera.

Dibs said that Sweden’s confirmation was a setback for a fair solution to the economic crisis, Lebanon, and it will strongly affect the depositors and the state.

He said: “The appointment of Sweden is catastrophic,” adding that the state is likely to take tens of billions of dollars in debt instead of banks.

Critics like Debs says, because many politicians are funded by bankers or shareholders in the banks themselves, they are trying to take over economic policy Lebanon is in line with the interests of banks even if they contradict the public interest.

For years, banks have benefited from the laws of banking secrecy that the reformists and colleagues say the need for change.

Opponents of the new central bank ruler will now pressure to try to reach a recovery plan that they feel fair to the depositors, but it will be an arduous battle after the appointment of Sweden.

“They are turning the country into a private company, perhaps for a few thousand individuals who will literally control most of the country,” said Dempus.

“It is very dangerous and the country will change completely.”