Sisi and the Future of Egypt- From Field Marshal to Pharaoh?

Following the ouster of President Morsi last July, the military has grown increasingly intolerant of dissent, reintroducing a Mubarak-esque police state and most recently declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation. With the constitutional referendum passed with 98% of yes-votes, despite less than 40% of eligible voters participated, Field Marshal Sisi appears poised to announce his candidacy for President. What prospects would a Sisi presidency hold out – both for Egypt’s political development and future stability? And should Europe try to develop a policy toward Egypt that looks beyond the current wave of repression, as proposed in the recent ECFR memo Egypt’s unsustainable crackdown?    

This discussion will explore varying dynamics to the events unfolding in the country: Issandr El Amrani will analyse internal developments, Anthony Dworkin will outline a possible long-term vision for European policy vis-à-vis Egypt, and Florence Gaub will take a look at the active role of the armed forces in the country. 

Issandr El Amrani is North Africa Project Director at International Crisis Group and founder of The Arabist. He spends his time between Cairo and Rabat. He previously worked as a Visiting Fellow at ECFR. He was the Cairo correspondent for Middle East International and writes for The Economist, the Financial Times, the London Review of Books, Foreign Policy, The National, Bidoun and other publications.

Florence Gaubis a Senior Analyst at EUISS where she works on the Arab world with a focus on strategy and security. In addition to monitoring post-conflict developments in Iraq, Lebanon and Libya, she works on Arab military forces, conflict structures and geostrategic dimensions of the Arab region.

Anthony Dworkin is a Senior Policy Fellow at ECFR working on democracy, human rights and justice. He has written several papers for ECFR on the EU’s support of democracy and human rights in North Africa, including most recently The struggle for pluralism after the North African revolutions  and Egypt’s Unsustainable Crackdown.  

Daniel Levy is the Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at ECFR.