Kataeb MP Elias Hankache on Friday stressed that the Cabinet members are living in a honeymoon trance which will lead the country to the brink of a civil war.

“The Cabinet is formed of opposing components that correspond over allocations and partitioning and that will lead to a civil war whenever they bicker,” Hankache stressed in an interview with TV host Marcel Ghanem on MTV channel.

As for the Kataeb’s intention to submit an appeal to the Constitutional Council against the 2019 State budget, Hankache explained that the Council does not allow an overall challenge of a entire budget so the party is left with the option of challenging certain articles such as the six-month stalemate without auditing the financial accounts of the previous years.

“You have pledged not to approve the budget no matter what without finalizing the audit of previous years' accounts and it was still passed without them,” he criticized.

“The Higher Defense Council presented a report of the illegal smuggling routes; let the government take action to control them,” he stressed, adding that “Random employment and fake jobs make up 30% of the State staffing.”

“Finances are strained, the purchasing power is in recession, and people are starving to death. What kind of standard country imposes additional taxes on the people in a two years’ time?” he questioned.

The Kataeb lawmaker retorted on the wrong presented figures of the State deficit and its finances.

He asserted that the only solution is to fight corruption and squandering, to control illegal smuggling routes and to conduct reforms.

He prompted Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel’s visit to Russia where he asked the Russians to act as mediators to bring back the Syrian refugees to their country given the strong ties between the country and Syria.

“Eleven months after, President Michel Aoun called for the return of the Syrian refugees through Russian mediation,” he pointed out, noting that refugee camps on the border should’ve been set up to host them from the beginning.

As for the waste crisis, Hankache denounced the handling of the waste crisis in the country as the foul smell and pollution is harming the residents and reports prove that the toxicity leads to cancer, amid rising tensions over the expansion of the Metn landfills.

He called on early Parliamentary elections so that everyone is held accountable to their performance.

“The party is proud of its past and aims at building a better country. We are proud to be three transparent Kataeb lawmakers,” Hankache said.

“The country cannot be built on tensions and such rhetoric. I do not wish that my children grow up in this jungle-like country where the strong prey on the weak,” Hankache slammed.

“The Kataeb party does not seek to take seats in the government and had that been the case, it would’ve collected shares in the political settlement which plunged after only 6 months and it would’ve got into the government under the pretext of recovering the Christians’ rights,” Hankache explained.

“We have alternative solutions to the electricity and garbage crisis files but they refuse to take them into consideration,” he noted.