The Anti Coup Alliance revealed an exit strategy to end the current crisis by calling for “deep dialogue” with revolutionary forces, parties and national figures on Saturday.
The dialogue as proposed by the alliance will focus on “how to get out of the current crisis and end the military rule” and “agreeing on future arrangements needed to create a modern democratic nation after breaking the coup.”
The Anti Coup Alliance, which is also known as the National Coalition to Support Legitimacy, is made up of several movements and parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood, that consider the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi on 3 July a military coup.
Political groups, however, did not seem hopeful about the outcome of the dialogue.
Atef Adly, the executive media secretary of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, said this dialogue is doomed to fail, and will not lead to anything since the alliance is referring to what happened as a “coup.” Adly said that for any dialogue to work, the alliance has to recognise what happened on 30 June as a “revolution,” let go of the word legitimacy, and everything related to it, and understand that the dialogue will be a societal reconciliation and not a “return to the previous political scene.”
Kefaya Movement spokesperson Abdel Rahman Al-Gohary said: “We reject dialogue and reconciliation with a ‘terrorist’ group whose hands have been tainted with the blood of Egyptians.” He described the call as “false” and “suspicious.” He said in order for dialogue to work, the Brotherhood must recognise “popular will,” the roadmap, and apologise for past mistakes.
The roadmap announced on 3 July by Defence Minister Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi included holding early presidential elections, temporarily suspending the constitution and swearing in head of the Supreme Constitutional Court at the time, Adly Mansour, as interim president.
6 April Youth Movement Spokesman Khaled Al-Masry said this call for dialogue is missing a lot of things. He said the call for dialogue must start with them apologising for their mistakes. “They need to admit that Morsi did not achieve the goals of the revolution,” he said, adding, “In the past, they did not respond to calls for dialogue.”
Haitham Mohamedein, founding member of the Revolutionary Front, did not welcome the alliance’s calls for dialogue.
“The front’s political programme finds any coalition with Islamist political movements highly unlikely,” Mohamedein said.
Other parties and movements were not as ready to come out with an official stance on the call for dialogue but reiterated their position on dialogue.
Al-Tayar Al-Shaaby (Popular Current) Spokesman Emad Hamdy said a position on this call for dialogue will be announced once the entire movement looks into all of the terms of the initiative, but he voiced a similar position to Adly’s. Hamdy said any initiative’s success depends on recognising the roadmap. That is a “main condition and there will not be a single step-back,” he said, adding that if the alliance acknowledges the roadmap, “we can talk about other details.”
Assistant Head of External Affairs of Al-Nour Party Amr Mekki said the party is yet to meet before it announces an official position on the matter. He said, however, that the party’s old position on initiatives is like the one announced by Mohamed Selim Al-Awwa, which suggested appointing a new prime minister who is “approved by everyone” and has the powers of the president. It entails that “we are with any initiative as long as it is executable” and puts the interests of the nation before those of any political party.
The Anti Coup Alliance’s 1,900 word call for dialogue states: “The military coup has put Egypt in a crisis that no political faction can exit alone.” The alliance described the crisis as a “nation’s crisis” that has nothing to do with what some may consider mistakes of a president or group.
As part of the initiative’s general framework, the alliance asserts that “peaceful opposition” is the only way to end the “coup and return to the democratic path.” It also states that the “rights of the martyrs and injured cannot be waived or compromised.”
