Last Spring, Hezbollah began distributing magnetic cards that allow its supporters to receive a cash allowance and large discounts on basic goods. The so-called “al-Sajjad” card, which is credited with a maximum of 300,000 Lebanese pounds, gives access to party-affiliated supermarkets which are otherwise off limits to the public.
In a country where more than half the population now lives below the poverty line, and where food prices have risen by 400 per cent in one year, the Iran-backed party is trying to position itself as a substitute for the government in a strategy that critics say is a textbook definition of clientelism.