The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy (NASL), the largest Islamist coalition that backs deposed president Mohamed Morsi, issued a statement on Monday calling for mass protests on 3 July to break what they described as a military coup that removed the Islamist president from power.
On 3 July 2013, exactly one year after he came to power in the country’s first democratic election, Morsi was ousted following three days of mass protests.
NASL’s statement said 3 July will be a day of mass rage to put “a start to the end of the coup” that will either lead to the fall of the “losing fascist”, referring to Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, or pave the way for days of rage leading to a tipping point.
“The raging people are the decision makers and we are behind them, ready for all scenarios,” the statement added.
The statement also said that they will make use of their “accumulated experiences of the revolution to create surprises” on 3 July.
It said the government’s recent decisions to lift subsidies and increase prices are a red line and a strong starting point towards “breaking the coup”.
Although there are rumours of a spike in commodity prices and gas, official decisions are yet to be announced.
The statement said that 3 July will begin with a march in Cairo from 35 mosques, the same one they marched from on 28 January 2011.
The number of pro-Morsi protests and demonstrators have dramatically fallen over the past year amid a crackdown on Islamists that has seen hundreds killed and thousands jailed.
On Monday, two bombs exploded at Ittihadiya presidential palace, killing two senior police officers and injuring 13 others. The militant attack is the most recent in a series of explosions that have hit the country since last year, leaving hundreds of police and army personnel dead.
Following Morsi’s ouster, a “roadmap” was announced by then-army chief El-Sisi which consisted of three electoral polls – a constitutional referendum in January, followed by the presidential vote in May and then the expected parliamentary election, slated to begin in mid-July.
Source:Al-Ahram Online
