Ghad (Tomorrow) Party leader Ayman Nour, who won seven percent of the vote in the 2005 presidential elections, did support the demonstrations. The pro-business Wafd Party never announced a clear position. The so-called 'left' Tagammu‘ Party refused to endorse the demonstrations out of appreciation for the police (January 25 is Police Day in Egypt). The vast majority of the participants in the demonstrations does not belong to any political or religious party or movement and has not previously participated in public political activity.Īs usual, Egypt’s opposition parties were ineffectual. But they have not played an organizing or leading role. Many of the extra-parliamentary oppositional figures who have been active in the last decade have participated and spoken to the media. One of the most extraordinary aspects of the Egyptian intifada is that there is no identifiable leadership. The demand for regime change has only intensified since January 28.

Within days demonstrators set their sights squarely on the entire autocratic regime, whose oppression at last became unbearable. By the time President Mubarak addressed the nation that evening and announced he had requested the resignation of the entire cabinet, the army had begun to assume security responsibility for Egypt’s major cities.Įconomic demands were prominent in the demonstrations of the January 25 'Day of Anger,' which launched the protest movement. In Alexandria, Egypt’s second city, demonstrators drove the police and Central Security Force out of town. Hundreds of thousands of protesters throughout the country defied the 6:00 PM curfew proclaimed by the regime and remained in the streets throughout the night. The provincial NDP headquarters in Fayyum was torched a few hours later. In this case, assaulting the offices of the ruling party, and other official buildings in Alexandria, Suez, and Tanta underscored one of the main chants of the demonstrators: 'The people want an end to the regime.' Not 'reform' and the resignation of the cabinet, which is a technocratic and administrative body with limited powers, but a regime change and a transition to democracy which would only begin with the resignation of President Mubarak.Įarlier in the afternoon, crowds stormed regional NDP headquarters in the Suez Canal city of Isma‘iliyya and the Delta provincial capital of Mansura. The targets of angry crowds are rarely accidental. By the time President Mubarak addressed the nation that evening and announced he had requested the resignation of the entire cabinet, the army had begun to assume security responsibility for Egypt's major cities. In Alexandria, Egypt's second city, demonstrators drove the police and Central Security Force out of town. Two hours later the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party, which President Mubarak leads, was on fire.Įarlier in the afternoon, crowds stormed regional NDP headquarters in the Suez Canal city of Isma‘iliyya and the Delta provincial capital of Mansura. About 2:00 pm, 20,000 protestors broke through the blockades and took over the Qasr al-Nil Bridge connecting Giza and Zamalek to Tahrir Square, the hub of the downtown district. For several hours after the conclusion of Friday noon prayers, the police and Central Security Forces successfully kept demonstrators away from the center of Cairo. If the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak falls, the tipping point will have been mid-afternoon of January 28.

Tipping velvet torrent