Lebanon - Lebanese Forces Party Chief, Samir Geagea, said in a statement today, that “the only decision issued by the government regarding daylight savings time is Cabinet Resolution No. 5 dated 20/8/1998, which stipulates moving the clock one hour forward on the last weekend of March of every year; and therefore, the memorandum of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers dated 23/3/2023 on delaying daylight savings time is unconstitutional and illegal."

Geagea indicated that the Prime Minister circulates to departments and apparatuses what the Council of Ministers decides, and does not in any way issue circulars that contradict government decisions. "Hemne, the memorandum issued by the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers on 23/3/2023 No. 28 is considered null," he said.

The LF Chief emphasized that "the Prime Minister's relationship with public administrations and state employees is exclusively within the framework of ministerial decisions, and from this standpoint, these public administrations and institutions and all Lebanese citizens must advance the clock by one hour based on the aforementioned cabinet decision and in the absence of any other ministerial decision in this regard."

Geagea continued: "We thus call, as a party, a parliamentary bloc, and part of a balanced opposition in the Parliament Council, on all those concerned, to implement the Cabinet decision issued on August 20, 1998, by moving the clock one hour forward, and to consider the decision of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers as if it did not occur," affirming that "the issue in question has nothing to do with the Holy month of Ramadan or the blessed Easter, nor with any other religious consideration; rather, the issue is related to public order and the application of the constitution and the law."

"I hope that the Prime Minister will take into account these constitutional and legal facts and act according to his national duties,” he concluded.