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El-Erian affirms anti-coup protests will remain peaceful

February 5, 2014 at 2:12 am

To mark the 100th day since the military coup took place in Egypt, Deputy Head of the Freedom and Justice Party Essam El-Erian has affirmed that the anti-coup protests have been and will continue to be peaceful despite facing harsh repression from the Egyptian security forces.


In a televised speech broadcast by Al-Jazeera Mubashir Misr, El-Erian said: “The massacres by the coup authorities and the spilling of the blood of innocents continue.”

El-Erian cited several negative effects of the coup; however the most important, according to him, was Egypt’s derailment from the democratic track. “This took the army far away from its legitimate role,” he explained.

He added: “One hundred days of instability have passed in Egypt resulting in huge economic turmoil and a halt on all development projects due to the suspension of foreign investment. This has starved four million Egyptians.”

The coup has resulted in an international boycott, according to El-Erian, because free nations only recognise democratic governments. Illegitimacy has put Egypt in the position of a beggar asking undemocratic states, which do not want to see a democratic Egypt, for aid.

Such states, he said, do not want Egypt to play a real leadership role, and they want to suppress the spirit of the Egyptian revolution.

Regarding the “anti-terror” military campaign that is being carried out by the army, he said that this is an imaginary war aimed at filling the prisons with thousands of innocent Egyptians, as well as confiscating their properties and suppressing their freedoms.

He also described how the coup has changed the role of the Egyptian army: before they were protecting the country, whereas now they are checking the bags of schoolboys to search for the Rabaa logo.

At the end of his speech, El-Erian affirmed that the ant-coup protests started peaceful and would continue to be peaceful, despite the state’s repressive actions against the protesters.