Formed in the interim between the dissolution of the Arab Socialist Union (ASU) and the creation of the National Democratic Party (NDP), the Tagammu Party was established by Khaled Mohieddin in 1976 to encompass the leftist elements of the ASU.
Mohieddin was one of the Free Officers behind the 1952 coup that overthrew the reigning King Farouk. Having pushed for democracy and fallen out with Gamal Abdel Nasser, he went into self-imposed exile in Europe before being invited to return by Abdel Nasser to take the reins of Al-Messa newspaper.
A socialist party in essence, with reverence to the ideals of Abdel Nasser’s revolution, the National Progressive Unionist – or Tagammu – Party was made up of the socialist, Nasserist and Marxist vestiges of the ASU.
Anwar Al-Sadat had dissolved the ASU in 1976 and allowed the three right, left and center ideological offshoots to form their own parties. He was to form the NDP two years later, the party which retains power till this day and which Tagammu has opposed, although to a somewhat negligible effect.
The founding committee of the Tagammu Party convened on April 10, 1976 and 29 of the 123 members were picked to form the party’s secretariat, with Mohieddin as its head. Its platform was broadly socialist, despite the disparate members making up the party, and was opposed to the privatization efforts of the government.
It supports a broadly socialist economic policy, and calls for social justice for all Egyptians. Its reticence to support former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei and his campaign for political change was partially related to differing economic views between party members and the economically liberal values ascribed to ElBaradei.
It also had a strong foreign policy platform, supporting Arab unity and especially the Palestinian cause, and opposed to Israel. The party’s socialist case took a hit with the dissolution of the former Soviet Union but Tagammu has always sported a leftist slant as well as a strong support for democratic practices.
Another facet of the party’s makeup is its insistence on Egyptian national unity, always including members of the Coptic community amongst its roster, and boasting Coptic candidates in its election campaigns.
As a result, it has also been vehemently opposed to Islamic extremism and till today its members have been divided over whether to establish any sort of ties of cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Its mouthpiece is the weekly Al-Ahali newspaper, which has often been shut down by the regime in the past 35 years. The current party head is Mohamed Rifaat Al-Saeed, who has held the post since 2003.
Due to the disparate nature of many of its members’ ideologies, the Tagammu Party has always been subject to internal disagreement, and under Al-Saeed has been accused of being friendly towards the Mubarak regime, part of the “loyal opposition” that Al-Sadat blessed it as during its inception.
It is however supportive of general opposition demands for constitutional reform, especially Articles 76, 77 and 88 which govern parliamentary and presidential elections. The party wants a return to judicial supervision of elections.
For the 2010 PA elections the party is fielding 78 candidates in 21 governorates. Nine of its candidates will contest the women quota seats. Around 12 percent of the party’s candidates are Copts.
There had been an intense internal discourse over whether to boycott the elections like some other opposition groups had called for but in the end the party decided to field its candidates.
Parliamentary representation:
2005 – 2 seats
2000 – 6 seats
1995 – 5 seats
1990 – 5 seats
1984 – None
1979 – None
Prominent members:
Khaled Mohieddin – Founder and first Chairman
Mohamed Rifaat Al-Saeed – Current Chairman
Sayid Abdel-Aal – Secretary-General
Hussein Abdel-Razek – Head of the Political Bureau
Farida Al-Naqash – Editor-in-chief of party newspaper Al-Ahali
