Egypt's largest city witnessed security alert after calls for demonstrations in the middle of the day, and the authorities decided to dismiss students before their usual date, while the presidency promised reforms and called for the support of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Al-Jazeera correspondent Abdullah Hamed said that the parents of students in Cairo schools were surprised this morning when the school administrations told them that the departure dates will be an hour ahead of schedule, as followers linked this decision to the authorities' attempt to abort the demonstrations.
Police have stepped up their presence in the streets and squares in anticipation of the outbreak of anti-regime demonstrations, such as that occurred on Friday before last, and the sound of alerts from police armored vehicles and troop carriers, and stationary ambushes spread in the major squares in Cairo and Giza.
Greater Cairo and provincial centers were besieged by huge police forces last Friday, which prevented the demonstrations out only in the popular areas and small cities in the delta and the provinces, such as leaves north of Giza and Qena in Upper Egypt.
This comes after the artist and contractor Mohamed Ali broadcast a new video on social networking sites in which he called for a demonstration at three o'clock in the afternoon, stressing that the authorities will not be able to close the streets and squares at the peak time as it did previously, and expected to happen to confuse the army and police forces.
Promises reforms
On the other hand, Egyptian Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Al said that the government and parliament should do their duty to stand by the people and not "export problems" to President Sisi, saying that the problem lies in "a president who jumps in order to achieve the goals, and the government is moving on one foot (..) , The local councils are absent. "
The deputies, described by opponents of the Intelligence Parliament, stood for a minute in support of the president and the army at the request of Abdel-Al during the opening session of the House of Representatives for the fifth session.
The speaker promised that "the coming period will witness political, partisan and media reforms" and that the council will discuss "laws (unspecified) that affect the essence of political life in Egypt."
This coincided with the continued prosecution and Egyptian courts to investigate thousands of protesters arrested in connection with the demonstrations calling for the departure of Sisi, and continued international condemnations condemning the crackdowns and the closure of the streets, the latest demand of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry of the Egyptian authorities to release the detainees.