The Egyptian public is as surely busy as ever. Between the recent international scandal involving President Mohammed Morsi’s dialogue with national political forces over Ethiopia (almost all attendees had no idea it was being televised live, leading to some very politically inappropriate utterances); leading opposition figure Amr Moussa’s leaked controversial meeting with Brotherhood strongman Khairat El-Shater despite the opposition’s stated boycott policy; and the extremely troubling verdict on the outrageous NGO trial that both punishes and threatens to paralyze civil society, the public has no shortage of issues to discuss and speculate on this week. However, the one topic that seems to be increasingly dominating discussions of late, locally and beyond, has been the national anti-Morsi and anti-Brotherhood protests set for June 30, around the anniversary of Morsi’s troubled first year in power.
The protests, whose origins still remain somewhat debatable, are widely expected to be a large-scale event. In fact, some are even calling upon other anti-government protesters and anti-Islamists in Tunisia and Turkey (the latter capturing the international spotlight as of late) and others to also hold mass protests on the same date, turning the day into a regional pro-democracy marching event. On the one hand, the opposition has largely seen the scheduled demonstrations as a manifestation of anger against the president and the Brotherhood, seeking reforms and political inclusion. But on the other hand, it seems that much of the anti-Islamist (more directly: anti-Brotherhood) local public sentiment expects something much more out of this. Namely, the stated hope is that the protests could be large enough to push Morsi to step down, and for the country to hold early presidential elections. The growing state of national frustration and the plummeting popularity of Morsi and the Brotherhood (and the opposition as well, for that matter), coupled with claims by the Tamarrod (Rebel) movement to have gathered more than 7 million signatures calling for early presidential elections in a very short time have given an extra boost of energy to those who expect more out of the protests. What’s more, Salafist Nour Party leader Yasser Borhami’s statement in which he claimed, “If millions like the ones in the revolution take to the streets, I will ask Morsi to resign,” has also given hope to some that not all Salafists will not come out in support of Morsi, or at least not in the same manner as they did in November and December.