Libya approves its first unified budget since 2013. The hard part starts now

A single budget across two rival governments is a real milestone. Whether it holds is another question entirely.

In April Libya's rival administrations, with American prodding, approved the country's first unified state budget since 2013, a figure of around 190 billion dinars, close to 30 billion dollars. On paper it is a step toward reuniting fractured institutions and curbing the freelance spending that has drained the country.

The reality on the ground stayed messy. In May fighting near Tripoli forced the shutdown of the Zawiya refinery, the largest still operating, and the underlying split endures. The government in Tripoli signs the contracts. The forces in the east control most of the fields and ports and can halt the flow at will.

A shared budget without a shared state is a promise more than a settlement. It is still the most encouraging thing to come out of Libya in years. The test is whether the money moves through one set of books, or whether the old two government habit quietly reasserts itself.