The past weeks of protests in Lebanon have shown that the Lebanese, to an increasing extent, are willing to defy the lockdown in order to express their anger with the country’s political and financial elites. But the coronavirus also provides an opportunity for these same elites to put their strongest survival tool into work: the exchange of welfare for political loyalty.
On 15 March, the Lebanese government declared a medical emergency to fight the coronavirus. Eleven days later, a curfew was introduced, which banned people from leaving their homes between 7pm and 5am.
Since 17 October last year, Lebanese had been taking to the streets in a nationwide protest wave. By February, weekly marches were still held in Beirut with some hundred attendees, demonstrations still erupted across the country, and about 50-60 activists had remained camping in the center of the capital. But the intensity of the protests was slowing down.
