October 8, 2026
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stressed that the state’s restoration of its authority and the confinement of legitimate power to its institutions are the solid foundation for the establishment of the state of law, stressing that sovereignty remains incomplete if war, peace, and national security decisions are taken outside constitutional frameworks.
Salam’s statements came during the opening of the “Between the Lines of the Constitution” exhibition at the National Library in Sanayeh, in celebration of the centenary of the issuance of the Lebanese Constitution. He reviewed the historical and intellectual roots of the political system, the stages of its development, and the challenges that hindered the process of building the state.
The Prime Minister explained that the constitution, since its issuance on May 23, 1926, was not just blind legal texts, but rather constituted the framework regulating the existence of the state and its institutions, and a mirror of the rights and freedoms of the Lebanese people, indicating that the true essence of constitutions lies in restricting power, not releasing it, lest the ruler be above the law. He touched on the intellectual and historical pluralism on which the Lebanese constitution was built, wondering whether the Lebanese have succeeded in transforming this diversity into a true partnership or whether they have let it slide toward sharing the reins of the state.
In reviewing the historical path, Salam drew attention to the contributions of the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms, the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, the Arab Renaissance Movement and its pioneers in consolidating the concepts of citizenship, equality, and freedom from fanaticism. He also pointed to the role played by French constitutional thought in formulating the institutional structure of the 1926 Constitution, especially in terms of separation of powers and guaranteeing public freedoms, considering that Article 95 represented a founding attempt to reconcile the requirements of the modern state with the reality of a pluralistic society.
Regarding the stage of independence and the 1943 Charter, Salam considered that it established state sovereignty, but it carried within it the seeds of future crises, with some understandings turning into norms that went beyond the original text. He pointed out that the Taif Agreement in 1989 was born out of the civil war as an objective response to managing pluralism, by establishing parity, approving decentralization, and emphasizing Lebanon’s Arab identity and finality, as well as transferring executive authority to the Council of Ministers together.
At the conclusion of his speech, Salam called for a review of the crime of partial implementation of the Taif Agreement, criticizing the obstruction of the adoption of some of its essential reform provisions – such as the establishment of the Senate and the abolition of political sectarianism – and warning of the danger of turning political obstruction, repeated presidential vacancies, and crises in forming governments into unwritten rules that almost threaten the continuation of the state and prevent it.
