The demonstrators who chased the president of Sri Lanka from his palace in Colombo had every intention on Sunday of continuing to occupy the building until he resigns next Wednesday, as he promised.
“Our struggle is not over,” explained Lahiru Weerasekara, one of the student leaders of the movement. “We won’t give up until he’s really gone,” he told reporters.
In the evening, a mannequin bearing the image of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was hung on the porch of a clock tower, to the applause of the large crowd near the presidential residence.
The Head of State, a refugee on board a military ship and on his way to a military base in the northeast of the island, announced on Saturday evening, at the end of a day marked by several coups of the demonstrators, that he was ready to resign on Wednesday July 13.
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in the district of the official residences to express their anger at the unprecedented economic crisis that the country is experiencing and for which they deem the president partly responsible.
Among them, several hundred managed to break into the palace, scaling the gates as guards struggled to hold them off just long enough to take the president away.
The Prime Minister’s residence was set on fire in the evening, and three suspects were arrested on Sunday, according to the police.
These events are the culmination of relentless and sometimes violent protests in recent months over the country’s food, medicine and energy shortages, for which residents blame much of the government’s incompetence and corruption. Rajapaksa clan, brothers who shared power for more than fifteen years.
In this formerly middle-income country, three-quarters of the population are now reducing their diet, according to the United Nations, which warned on Sunday of a risk of a serious humanitarian crisis.
Picnics and presidential chair
But on Sunday, for the demonstrators, the mood was one of joy. Joy of victory, since the president promised that he would leave his post. But also more immediate joy to enjoy for a few hours the luxury usually reserved for the leaders of the State.
Because they occupy not only the presidential palace, but also that of the prime minister, and the offices of these two leaders.
And on Sunday morning, you could see the crowd strolling quietly through all these buildings, taking advantage of the soft armchairs or queuing to take turns sitting in the presidential chair, admiring the works of art, trying out the piano at queuing or marveling at the air conditioning.
When leaders live in such luxury, obviously they have no idea how ordinary people live.
“When leaders live in such luxury, obviously they have no idea how ordinary people live,” Sri Sumeda, a Buddhist monk, told Agence France-Presse.
“All of this shows what can be done when the people decide to exercise their power,” he added, pointing to the crowd around him.
Outside, some had taken advantage of the swimming pool on Saturday, and on Sunday in the park of this former residence of the governor of Ceylon at the time of British colonization, as in that of the residence of the Prime Minister, families picnicking were fucking all over the place, and temporary kitchens had even popped up here and there.
Waiting and urgency
The political situation remains uncertain. If the president does indeed resign as promised on July 13, Parliament would then have one month, by law, to elect his replacement.
A very long delay given the state of crisis in the country. The President of Parliament also affirmed that the deputies would designate the new president within a week. But no candidate seems to have gathered a majority of votes for the moment.
All officials, both in Sri Lanka and abroad, hope to see the political crisis resolved as soon as possible so that the country can tackle the economic disaster caused in large part by the loss of tourism revenue following an attack. jihadist in 2019 and then to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The country, which defaulted on the payment of its debt in April, is currently in negotiations with the IMF, which said on Sunday that it hoped “a rapid settlement” of the situation to allow “the resumption of our dialogue”.
The Chief of Staff called for calm, assuring that it was possible “to resolve the crisis peacefully and constitutionally”.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Parliament “to resolve this situation for the good of the country, not a political party”.
The future government “will have to work quickly to identify the problems and find the solutions to bring back economic stability”, he said, adding that these solutions should respond “to the discontent of the people, who are so powerful and palpable, with to the deterioration of economic conditions”.