A number of young Lebanese people threw bottles of water on Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri in the center of Lebanese capital Beirut during his speech to address the demonstrators who rallied against the taxes imposed recently on the citizenswith no increase in the salaries. Hariri stopped his procession in the square where the demonstrators rallied, while a number of citizens threw the water bottles on him.
Despite the action, Hariri insisted to resume addressing the protesters, saying, “We promised you before to adopt transparent approach with you. You will see that this government will cooperate with the president to support all of you and to ease your pains.”
The guards prevented the bottles from reaching to the prime minister whose government faces serious challenge due to the proposals to increase the taxes to pave the way for increasing the salaries of teachers and governmental employees. Hariri pledged to support the citizens and to fight against corruption, while he avoided to talk about the tax increase pushing thousands of demonstrators to protest against the government.
The demonstrators’ increasing protests pushed the prime minister to summarize his speech and to leave the square heading to the headquarters of the cabinet. The demonstrators said that the government embezzles the public funds, stressing that they should treat the budget deficit through the fight against corruption not the increase of taxes.