People in Egypt should be engaged in resolving crises: Opposition party leader to National Dialogue

CAIRO – 3 May 2023: Farid Zahran, chairman of the opposition Egyptian Social Democratic Party, said people should be engaged in resolving the crises that face the nation instead of adopting the security perspective that continued for decades in Egypt.

Delivering a speech at the National Dialogue’s first session on Wednesday, Zahran said the current crisis in Egypt is mainly blamed on “wrong policies, practices, and stances taken by the regime”.

He added that the essence of the problem is that these wrong policies are often introduced as the only possible choice.

He affirmed that he is attending the dialogue although some of the guarantees that the Civil Movement, which his party is part of, has agreed on with the sponsors of the dialogue have not been achieved.

 

Hossam Badrawi, Advisor to the National Dialogue for Egypt 2030 Vision, also delivered a speech at the session, affirming that the National Dialogue is political in the first class and that the Constitution is the reference that should govern the dialogue.

He called for the "political leadership that has responded to the call of people in 30 June 2013 to fulfill the citizens' rights in establishing the pillars of the modern civilian new republic."

Badrawi paid tribute to the Egyptian Armed Forces. However, he said the esteemed Armed Forces that we are proud of "should not be politically placed within the development challenge responsibility and lose its value in the event of deviation from the Constitution or the destructive revolutions that may be called by people."

The National Dialogue’s opening session kicked off today with a broad-based and effective participation by representatives of all syndicates, political forces and NGOs.

Multiple political, economic, and social topics are set to be discussed during the dialogue’s various sessions.

The opening session is open to all accredited Egyptian and foreign media outlets and the dialogue’s sessions are set to be public.

Human rights files, including amending the provisions of the pretrial detention and releasing pretrial detainees, are set to become on top of the dialogue’s agenda.

Meanwhile, General Coordinator of the National Dialogue Diaa Rashwan said on Tuesday that he received “reassurances” that Case 173 in which a number of Egyptian and foreign NGOs have been charged of receiving illegal funds from abroad, will be closed soon.

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi delivered a recorded speech at the opening session, where he stressed support to the dialogue and pledged to pave the way for its success.

Sisi has stressed that the “diverse and different” viewpoints and proposals significantly enhance the effectiveness of the National Dialogue’s outcomes that he is expecting.