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Egyptian opposition leader calls for integration of members of the ousted regime

February 8, 2014 at 2:27 pm

The founder of the Egypt’s al-Dostour party Mohamed al-Baradee has called for the “merging of former members of the old National Party, which ruled during the reign of Hosni Mubarak,” the London based newspaper al-Hayat reported on Thursday.

Al-Baradee called for the “prosecution of the criminals [from this party], and for the abandonment of the use of the word ‘remnants’ as though it was something from the past.

In the third part of his interview with the newspaper, the leader in the Salvation Front, which is a grouping of most secularist and liberal opposition parties, said he feels that he played the role needed from him in the wake of Mubarak’s resignation.


He said that he had met current Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi for an hour, and said: “I spoke to him frankly, but I lost hope while speaking to him.” Al-Baradee considered that dragging the opposition into dialogue for merely taking pictures with them is a kind of illusion.

The man who lived in Vienna before the revolution and refused to comment on political issues, when questioned by different news platforms, said that the “bequeathing” presidency to a family member was one of the issues that made Egyptians angry and pushed them to call for the ousting the previous regime.

Discussing the meaning of the word ‘remnants,’ Al-Baradee said: “It means the followers of an old regime, whose leaders were isolated from political life by the new constitution. There are 3 million members who have to be integrated with us in order to move together.”

On his relations with the late Omar Solaiman, who was assigned as deputy president during the revolution, al-Baradee said that the he had planned to nominate him as prime minister if he had won the presidential elections.