The protests created a political crisis in Lebanon, with Prime Minister Saad Hariri tendering his resignation, not demanding any new governmental needs of being the prime minister and echoing protesters' demands for a government of independent specialists. According to The Economist , Lebanon's dysfunction and mismanagement which followed the protests, has originated in the country's sectarian political system codified by the Taif agreement , which took place in The Taif agreement enshrines a sect-based political system, where political authority is allocated based on the religious affiliation of the public servant.
This system is perceived as exploited by the current Lebanese politicians, many of whom are Lebanese Civil War -era sectarian warlords who still occupy positions of power and enjoy amnesty against accountability. It is composed of 18 different sects. The 18 officially recognized religious groups include four Muslim sects , 12 Christian sects, the Druze sect, and Judaism. The outbreak of the protests was attributed to the accumulated crises within the preceding weeks in Lebanon. First, in Chouf and Saadiyat , among other places, fires propagated, scorching nearby homes, and placing many people in danger.
A large portion of greenery, an aspect that makes Lebanon special, was burnt down as a result. The Lebanese government failed to employ its planes to extinguish the fires and had to rely on Cypriot aid. Furthermore, Lebanese citizens were facing many problems in the preceding years, electricity cuts since , and so obtaining hour electricity in Lebanon has since been dependent on obtaining a deal with the country's "generator mafia", which operates a ring of contraband gasoline power generators that contribute to the high level of air pollution in Lebanese cities.
Finally, the country suffers from deficient sanitation and sewage infrastructure, which led to the "garbage crisis" that sparked the β Lebanese protests. Days before the protests began, a series of about major wildfires in Chouf, Khroub and other Lebanese areas displaced hundreds of people and caused enormous damage to Lebanese wildlife.
The Lebanese government failed to deploy its firefighting equipment due to lack of maintenance and had to rely on aid from neighboring Cyprus , Jordan , Turkey and Greece. Protests started taking place in small numbers around Beirut towards the end of September. Since , successive governments maintained a pegged exchange rate between the Lebanese pound and United States dollar. On 1 October, the Central Bank of Lebanon announced an economic strategy that promised to provide dollars to all those companies in the business of importing wheat, gasoline, and pharmaceuticals, so that they could continue their imports.
