Egypt’s major political forces and their relations with the president M. Mursi in 2012–2013

Abstract

Political situation in Egypt has been attracting international attention since 2011, when the wave of protests of so-called Arab Spring swept through the region of Middle East and North Africa. Inspired by democratic slogans of political pluralism, freedom of speech, press and religion, Egyptian revolution led to the political success of the Islamist groups, such as An-Nour and Muslim Brotherhood, that came to power in 2012. The representative of Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Morsi held his position of the head of the state for a critically short term: had been elected in the end of June 2012, he was overthrown in the beginning of July 2013 by military coup supported by all the political forces of Egypt as well as Egyptian people, who gathered again in the Tahrir Square. Eventually, the people who had voted for Morsi a year before turned against him as well as political forces that used to support Muslim Brotherhood. He didn’t manage to prove his consistency as the president of the country. A number of factors led to this result. Economic situation in Egypt didn’t improve, democratically elected president launched totally undemocratic initiatives, etc. All these factors may be considered as obviously objective reasons for loosing the power. But Egyptian political environment has specific features that should be taken into account while investigating the reasons and factors of Morsi overthrow in 2013. Had being shaped through previous 30 years of Hosni Mubarak power and firmly rooted in Egyptian society, they couldn’t be changed simultaneously after the revolution. Two key players have been occupied leading positions in Egyptian politics during all this period: business elites and army. Both of them had financial and social base and influenced public opinion in the country. Political situation turned to be even more complicated with the vast number of new parties arouse after the revolt. All these players had an important part in Egyptian politics and should have been taken into account by the president. Moreover, his ability to form relationship with them and gain their loyalty was an important condition for maintaining power. Instead, M. Morsi started confrontation with the leading political forces of Egypt. Apparently, this wrong tactics resulted in his overthrow from the presidency in 2013.