In the face of street mobility and congestion, the Egyptian regime is not devoid of methods and means to reduce its severity, and work to destroy it in its cradle for fear of its exacerbation and expansion of the circle of influence, and then the high cost of treatment later, which may lose part of the gains that it has accumulated since the military coup.

About two weeks ago, demonstrations against the current President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and his regime continued to take place in a number of Egyptian governorates and villages, at the invitation of the Egyptian actor and contractor Mohamed Ali, in parallels to the protests of September 20 of last year.

This call coincided with great anger among Egyptians over the exaggeration in financial fines imposed by the authority on citizens in the form of fees for reconciliation in building violations to avoid demolishing homes, which was a major reason for the escalation of popular protests, in addition to the continuing deterioration of the economic and social conditions in the country.

And quickly, the regime switched between the methods of confrontation that it had used during its seven years.

Between denying the existence of these demonstrations, then campaigns of intimidation through an intense security deployment, through accusing the participants in those demonstrations of being "paid traitors", then arresting hundreds of them, as well as resorting to the counter-mobilization in an attempt to confuse the scene.

With the demonstrations putting pressure on the regime of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the government announced its reversal of those decisions indirectly, whether by extending the reconciliation period, or by reducing the fines, as well as by conditional permission for construction again, despite Sisi's decision to stop construction work for a period of 6 months.

Among the means of confrontation that the regime has resorted recently to, demanding financially capable businessmen and political and societal figures among its supporters to announce the donation by paying reconciliation fees for thousands of poor families, under the pretext of "believing in their societal responsibilities and starting from their charitable role", in a form that observers considered "blackmail" repeated By the regime towards its well-to-do supporters.

Help and Initiatives

In this context, media reports mentioned that prominent businessmen and parliamentarians received instructions from the head of the General Intelligence Service, Major General Abbas Kamel, asking them to announce their volunteering to pay reconciliation fees for needy families, in order to alleviate the tension of the street, similar to what happened earlier in the early era Al-Sisi obliged them to donate to the "Long Live Egypt" Fund.

In response to these demands, Talaat Mustafa Holding Group announced its donation to pay the value of reconciliation in construction violations to 5,000 families, “in order to lift the economic burdens on the shoulders of citizens.” The Nation’s Future Party also announced that it would bear reconciliation fees for 27,000 cases, under a lawsuit. "Starting from the national responsibility towards low-income people."

This method was attributed by the director of the International Institute of Political Science and Strategy, Mamdouh Al-Munir, to the regime’s attempt to preserve the pride of its president, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, as he does not seem to retreat from decisions that affected citizens under the pressure of their demonstrations and their resort to the street, so he resorted to “blackmailing” businessmen and rich people from his supporters who are keen on its continuation.

In his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Munir believes that the size of the response to these demands by businessmen and the institutions concerned with the matter is determined by the degree of loyalty to the regime they have, and the pressure tools it possesses that help it to force them to implement this requirement, and it may differ from person to person.

But Al-Munir does not expect a tangible effect of this method in easing the tension, going that it will escalate over time, and he attributed this to the fact that the problem of the street with the regime went beyond the problem of the reconciliation law to the rejection of its political and economic practices.

Political investment

Journalist specializing in economic policies, Ibrahim Al-Tayer described this methodology adopted by the Egyptian regime as “political investment,” and its two extremes are mainly the regime, investors and money-holders who benefit from the continuation of the system in their interest and ensure the continuation of their economic gains, and then both need the other.

Al-Tayer pointed out in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net that after the recent demonstrations broke out and expanded, the levels of fear and anxiety increased on both sides, prompting this means to absorb anger, which some considered came within the framework of the "extortion" of money men by the regime, while others see it as a method. Both parties accepted it, and they are convinced of its necessity and feasibility.

Al-Tayer agrees with Al-Munir that the most prominent goal of this path is to preserve the face of the regime, so that it does not appear in the image of the one who retracts from the decision, doubting at the same time that it will achieve its desired goal of reducing the intensity of anger, as these posts will not absorb an influential percentage of those affected by the Reconciliation Law.

In his opinion, this method would implicate its beneficiaries, not help them;

The expected contribution is limited to paying the amount of seriousness of reconciliation, which does not exceed 25% of the total value of the reconciliation fees, but the citizen will be involved in the installments of the remainder of the amount, which will increase his burdens with the benefits decided later.

The economic journalist points out that even if the system achieves a measure of appeasement because of this method, the result is to migrate the problem and not address it, which will only be achieved by presenting a real concession by the system, by canceling or effectively reducing those fees.

Other ramifications

The journalist specializing in economic affairs, Amr Khalifa, also warned that one of the repercussions of this method and the disclosure of the regime's role in it is the escape of more foreign investments, pointing out that Egypt witnessed the exit of 8 billion dollars of foreign investment during the current fiscal year.

In his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, Khalifa pointed out that the Sisi regime imposed more than 6 decisions during the past two months, all targeting citizens' capabilities and money, including "reducing the weight of a loaf of bread, raising the price of metro tickets, the tax on the phone, and increasing electricity prices," in addition to the activation of the law Reconciliation, which increased the suffering of the street and pushed it out and anger.

And with his expectation that these contributions by businessmen will alleviate some of the pressures on the shoulders of the poor, the economist Abd al-Nabi Abdul-Muttalib is unlikely to alleviate the tension in the street resulting from the reconciliation law, and may even lead to the opposite.

He justified this in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net that these contributions will only cover a small percentage of those affected by reconciliation fees, in light of the increase in the country's poverty rate of over 35%, indicating that this may generate a lot of hatred, and bring to mind the actions of the National Party during the era of the late President Hosni Mubarak By distinguishing the families of followers and supporters.