Popularist speeches and imaginary government achievements to usher in a new pandemic

In a statement, the BLOC saw that the repatriation of Lebanese citizens is a right and duty, especially with the heavy restrictions on outgoing money transfers.  The Bloc stated that the first repatriation effort was successful, while the second one was complete failure, and let to another wave of the pandemic in the country.

The Bloc pointed out that we cannot rely on the returning citizens to undergo voluntary isolation and quarantine: the government needs to oversee this process if it is to prove it is serious about this issue, and this is something that it did not do. The events that took place on the Middle East Airlines flight from London clearly demonstrated the airline’s lack of commitment to social distancing, leaving passengers shocked with an overcrowded flight.

The Bloc considers that the government has failed to show off its abilities in evacuating the Lebanese from abroad. The citizens themselves are the ones paying for the flights, the “PCR” tests, and the accommodation for the first night of quarantine; this was apparent when passenger arriving on the Saudi Airlines flight mostly opted to sleep on buses or in the hotel lobby because they were unable to afford the accommodation for one night of quarantine.

The Bloc stressed the fact that the government’s success with the first wave of repatriations has fallen because of the failures of the second wave.  The government has shown a lack of efficiency in coordination among its ministries with each blaming the other.  The Bloc concluded its statement by saying that the popularist speeches see to have blinded the government, and thus have drowned the country in imaginary accomplishments that may lead to a new wave of the Corona pandemic that could be more dangerous than its predecessor.