Marzouki describes Egypt's situation as shocking

Tunisia’s interim President Moncef Marzouki has described Egypt’s situation as shocking to himself or any other “democratic person”, based on the fact that liberals and human rights activists have supported ousting an elected president, Mohammed Morsi, from his democratically won post.

Marzouki told CNN that: “I’m surprised, even shocked, that liberals and human rights activists could support ousting a democratically elected president and accept this scale of violence against the people. These things are shocking to me and to every democratic person. These are liberals who have betrayed democracy. The Muslim Brotherhood is a large Islamist bloc but there are new Islamist parties as well. The radical secularists and the Islamic extremists will soon confront each other, and this will be very dangerous not only to Egypt but also to the entire region, a situation that we want to avoid in Tunisia.”

He further explained: “I am not defending the Muslim Brotherhood. They should have kept a chance for dialogue open like in Tunisia. However I repeat my problem is not the Muslim Brotherhood, but democracy. What happens in Egypt is very dangerous to democracy. I believe that democracy will return to Egypt, but this will need a long time.”

Marzouki commented on the Egyptian army’s role and its influence on the Tunisian army saying, “We have a highly professional army. It has not involved itself in politics since independence. But I am very concerned about Egypt as a democratic person and not as the president of Tunisia. What happens in Egypt is very dangerous.”

When asked about the instability of neighbouring countries, Libya in particular, Marzouki remarked: “There is a significant impact of course. Gaddafi was not only a dictator. I believe he was also crazy. He prevented the society from organizing itself. Therefore I understand Libya’s difficulty in forming a state after the revolution.”