Beblawi Cabinet Heading For Failure, Says Egypt’s Socialist Party

Egypt’s Socialist Popular Alliance Party has accused the interim government of “sabotaging” the transitional period.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the party said that the current government has not implemented adequate social justice measures and continues to operate under the emergency state.

“Extralegal security measures, failure to manage the social justice file and failure to issue necessary laws for transitional justice are all signs that the this government is veering towards sabotaging not only the transitional path but the country’s war on terror,” said the party in the statement.

The statement comes sixty days after liberal economist Hazem El-Beblawi took office as prime minister.

The party accused the interim government of failing to take measures towards regulating minimum and maximum wages and the redistribution of wealth, blaming the failure on the influence of the “old network of interests still controlling the country.”

The statement also denounced the continuing military trials of civilians and the government’s reference to them as “individual incidents.”

Egypt’s prime minister told the daily newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm last week that the government will not increase the minimum wage due to budget allocations.

The country has plunged deeper into political and economic turmoil since the army’s ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi following mass protests against him on 3 July.

On 14 August, the interim government announced a renewable state of emergency, hours after security forces violently cleared two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo. The dispersal left hundreds dead.

The one-month state of emergency was extended for two more months earlier this week along with an ongoing nighttime curfew, amid concerns over their adversary effect on the country’s languishing economy.

Source : Ahram