Socialist Alternative

CAIRO, Egypt, 27 November: Mass protests have been building in response to a power-grab by Mohamad Morsi, who last week decreed that all presidential decisions would be immune from judicial review.

Morsi’s seven-point Constitutional Declaration was promoted as a necessary defence of the revolution. However, as the wording of Article two clearly shows, the Declaration is an attack on democracy: “Previous constitutional declarations, laws, and decrees made by the president since he took office on 30 June 2012...are final and binding and cannot be appealed by any way or to any entity. Nor shall they be suspended or cancelled and all lawsuits related to them and brought before any judicial body against these decisions are annulled.” 

On Tuesday more than 100,000 marched on Tahrir Square in Cairo, the home of the revolutionary movement that last year toppled the hated dictator Hosni Mubarak. Protesters joined others who had been staging a sit-in since 23 November against the president. Banners denouncing Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood are reportedly prominent, with one reading “The Muslim Brotherhood stole the revolution.” The president has been pressured into meetings with the country’s top judges, but at the time of writing, there have been no amendments to the official decree.