The indications that more violence could lie in the country’s near future are many. Thousands of Morsi supporters are still camped out in Cairo, surrounded by military vehicles and soldiers lest their protests turn violent. And, earlier in the day, suspected Islamic militants attacked four sites in northern Sinai, including two military checkpoints, a police station and an airport used by the military. The attacks left one soldier dead and three wounded, and prompted Egypt to close its border crossing with Gaza. Scattered skirmishes have likewise been reported elsewhere.
The Brotherhood, enraged at the military for ousting Morsi and for continuing to round up and detain senior Brotherhood figures, has reportedly urged followers to keep the protests peaceful, but it has still declared its “complete rejection of the military coup” and said that it refuses “to participate in any activities with the usurping authorities,” according to the AP.
‘Glorious Revolution’
On the other side stand those who now hold the reins but are urging Morsi’s supporters to look to the future and join them in forming a new government and constitution. In his inaugural speech on Thursday, interim President Adly Manour said that the protests had “corrected the path” of the “glorious revolution” that began with the 2011 overthrow of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak. Likewise, a spokesman wrote in a statement released late Thursday that the military has a “strong will to ensure national reconciliation, constructive justice and tolerance.”
In Germany, responses have been tempered. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the country must return to constitutional order as quickly as possible. “I call on all those responsible in Egypt to act calmly, to meet each other halfway and to seek ways out of this serious crisis of state together,” he said Thursday. Chancellor Angela Merkel merely stated Thursday that Egypt was experiencing an “undoubtedly cataclysmic event that we must track with great concern.” On Friday, Development Minister Dirk Niebel took things a bit further, telling public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk that the fact that a majority of Egyptians weren’t happy with Morsi’s leadership did not “justify a military putsch” and that the matter would have been better handled at the ballot box.
In Friday’s leading newspapers, German commentators look for signs of hope among the clouds of uncertainty:
Center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
“Can the military overthrow in Egypt be justified? Yes. Egypt was on the edge of collapse. Economically, the country is in disastrous shape. On the political front, the conflict between the regime and the opposition had become hopelessly deadlocked and the street battles … were being fought in part with firearms. An agreement between the Islamists holed up in the presidential palace and the opposition, which was propelling people onto the streets, had become increasingly unlikely. The army, as the only institution in the country that still functions, hardly had another choice but to intervene.”
“The beginning of ‘Egyptian democracy’ was problematic. The cardinal error was not the fact that the Islamists came to power — after all, they were elected. No, the president and his Muslim Brotherhood, despite undeniable hurdles, have primarily themselves to blame for their failure. As the representatives of a secretive political-religious society which sees itself as part of the elite, they greedily grabbed for the perks, pointedly excluded many and divided a heterogeneous society. Despite their claims, they are not democrats. The Muslim Brotherhood sees elections merely as a vehicle through which they can achieve their preferred form of state. And that is not pluralistic democracy…. It is primarily for that reason, and not just because of the economic crisis, that Egyptians took to the streets to display their lack of trust in the elected head of state. It is primarily for that reason that they were waiting for the army.”
The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
“Whatever happens in Egypt, Morsi’s removal has an impact on the rest of the Arab world. The Islamists haven’t totally lost their appeal, but they have lost much of their innocence and credibility. This simplifies the search for new options. The Islamists, Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists will continue to play a role in politics in the years to come, but they will no longer dominate. If the former Egyptian opposition does its job well, the secular movements in other countries will get a boost too, especially in Tunisia and Libya.”
Business daily Handelsblatt writes:
“Having a change in power at the tips of bayonets is not so desirable. But, given all the bad options, this could be the best one. As a result of the military’s intervention, Egypt at least has a chance to make a second go at democracy. … Unlike with the toppling of Mubarak, the job of the West this time has been clear from the get-go: to support the (Egyptian) military as long as it commits itself to a swift transfer of power to civilian structures; making sure that human and civil rights are respected; and to employ all possible forms of influence to ensure this. This can range from IMF loans to American military aid to tourism.”
Conservative daily Die Welt writes:
“Where things go from here is an open question. Will it come to a civil war like the one in Algeria during the early ’90s? The first steps of Cairo’s generals don’t suggest that things will turn out that way on the Nile. Even the Muslim Brotherhood appears to shrink from this extreme. Many of them are just as disgusted as the liberal forces in the country with the catastrophic way in which their president exercised his office. … Nevertheless, people should not deceive themselves. Egypt is stuck in its worst economic crisis since the end of the monarchy. Mohammed Morsi failed because he couldn’t alleviate the country’s suffering. Will the new rulers be able to do any better? One can only hope.”
Left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:
“Morsi’s opponents … have won a Pyrrhic victory. The generals are the wrong friends for the democratic movement. They are no democrats, and they are even less interested in safeguarding the development of democracy (in Egypt). … The military is a state within a state … and it has been pulling the strings in the background for decades. … The liberal opposition, in particular, cannot be certain that the military won’t next topple a government that (the opposition) has elected and which corresponds with its views. For this reason, the joy over Morsi’s ouster is short-sighted. The army’s intervention could turn out to be more dangerous than is currently foreseeable. Egypt is threatened by a deep division that could result in conditions like those seen in Algeria.”
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Josh Ward- Der Spiegel