Lebanon’s biggest cities come to a standstill as hundreds of thousands protest against government
- The streets of Beirut and other cities have filled with protesters for a fourth day
- The protests started in response to a proposed tax on calls via WhatsApp and other messaging services
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese took to the streets to condemn political stasis and corruption on Sunday, the largest in four days of demonstrations that have crippled the country and threatened the coalition government.
The capital Beirut, second city Tripoli in the north and the southern port of Tyre came to a standstill, with streets filled with protesters waving the national flag, chanting “revolution” or “the people demand the fall of the regime” – a common refrain of demonstrations in other parts of the Arab world.
Protests have grown steadily across the Mediterranean country since public anger first spilled onto the streets on Thursday evening in response to a proposed tax on calls via WhatsApp and other messaging services.
While the government quickly dropped the plan, the leaderless protests morphed into demands for a sweeping overhaul of the political system, with grievances ranging from austerity measures to poor infrastructure.
More than a quarter of Lebanon’s population lives below the poverty line, the World Bank says, while the political class has remained relatively unchanged since the end of a devastating 15-year civil war in 1990.