CMES scholar Rola El-Husseini Dean was recently interviewed in an article about the Lebanese general election published in Dagens Nyheter. The article was written (in Swedish) by Hanna Rydén and published on May 15, 2022. Below, you will find some excerpts from the article translated into English.
– The situation in Lebanon is worse now than it has been in almost a hundred years since the great famine during World War II, comments Rola el-Husseini, political scientist at Lund University with roots in Lebanon.
Neither she nor other political analysts that Dagens Nyheter have been in touch with believe that the general election on Sunday will alter the catastrophic situation. The Lebanese parliament, consisting of 128 seats, is at present dominated by Hezbollah (loyal to Iran) and its allies.
– To transform the dire situation, we need to be rid of the contemporary political elite which has controlled Lebanese politics since the end of the civil war in 1990. What is needed are new, younger people. But I am not sure how that will be possible, adds Rola el-Husseini.
To learn more about how Lebanon went from being considered “the Paris of the Middle East” to “a rundown hotel that you can’t check out from”, read another article in Dagens Nyheter by Hanna Rydén that Rola El-Husseini consulted on.
