Nearly 10 years after its founding, the Civil Democratic Movement, which included opposition parties and public figures, is on the verge of announcing its dissolution or freezing its activities due to accumulated disputes among its components, the latest of which was the dispute over issuing a statement of support for the head of the “Conservative Party,” businessman Akmal Qurtam, in the incident of the demolition of his palace located in the Munil Shiha area in Giza Governorate.
This is the statement that the movement was later forced to delete from its official Facebook page in the face of pressure, ridicule, and the disavowal of most of the movement’s parties and leaders. It published an official apology confirming that the statement was issued without prior agreement or presentation to the members of the Board of Trustees.
Sayed El-Toukhy, head of the “Karama” party, said that the movement’s upcoming board of trustees meeting will discuss several options, including dissolving the movement or restructuring it, against the backdrop of erupting disputes related to its statement regarding the Qurtam Palace.
The movement's upcoming board of trustees meeting will discuss several options, including dissolving or restructuring the movement, following the eruption of disputes related to its statement regarding the Qurtam Palace.
He added to Al-Quds Al-Arabi that the meeting will be held on June 12, and that the meeting was scheduled for next Friday, but it was decided to postpone it.
He pointed out that the crisis in the statement is due to the decision-making mechanism in the movement, which adopts the approach of consensus rather than voting.
Last week, an internal crisis erupted within the movement's parties, after a statement was published on the movement's Facebook page expressing broad solidarity with its member, businessman Akmal Qurtam, following the Ministry of Irrigation's removal of a palace he owned on the Nile Corniche in Giza Governorate. The statement linked popular issues such as the crisis of demolishing heritage cemeteries and the crisis of the residents of Warraq Island, which has been ongoing for years, to the demolition of Qurtam's palace, and considered it an infringement on rights.
Sources within the movement revealed that the statement was a proposal from the Constitution Party, and it was supposed to be drafted in a way that would allow individual parties to sign it, before the head of the movement, Engineer Ahmed Bahaa Shaaban, drafted a statement and put it on the group for party representatives during the Eid holiday, and without obtaining the parties’ approval, he ordered it to be published on the movement’s Facebook page.
The statement was disavowed by all components of the movement, including the Conservative Party itself, which said that the issue in dispute relates to specific facts concerning private property, and procedures and decisions that are currently being legally challenged, stressing that the matter remains, in essence, a clear and well-defined legal issue.
The “conservatives” stressed that the suffering of citizens in housing and eviction cases is “real suffering that should not be underestimated.”
The party objected to what was stated in the Civil Movement’s statement regarding placing the issue in the context of other general issues that the country has witnessed in recent years, or comparing it to files related to the suffering of citizens in housing, eviction, replanning, or compensation issues.
He pointed out that despite the good intentions that may lie behind this comparison, it does not accurately reflect the nature of the current issue, nor does it do justice to those major issues that have affected the lives of thousands of families and constitute national files that deserve to be discussed in their own contexts.
The Conservatives stressed that the suffering of citizens in housing and eviction cases is “real suffering that should not be underestimated,” noting that the party has always been present in these issues, defending their owners by using all the political, media and legal tools available to it.
The statement noted that it would have been more appropriate to contact Qartam before issuing the statement, pointing out that the latter preferred, since the beginning of the crisis, to keep the Conservative Party away from being involved in this incident, and did not ask the party or any of its bodies to issue statements or take positions supporting him, preferring to fight his battle through normal legal and judicial channels.
The Justice Party decided to withdraw permanently from the Civil Democratic Movement, attributing this to “what recent developments have revealed aboutthe decline that has afflicted this political framework.”
In a statement, he said that his decision to freeze his activity within the movement, which he had made years ago, was not related to a passing disagreement or a circumstantial situation, but rather reflected a political assessment of the movement’s trajectory and its ability to continue as an effective platform for coordination and public action.
He added: “The movement was an experience worthy of appreciation and respect, and it contributed to preserving space for dialogue and joint action between different forces and currents. However, political experiences are measured by their ability to develop and keep pace with changes, and when this ability declines, it becomes necessary to conduct frank and responsible reviews.”
He believed that the decision to freeze activity, which he had previously taken, had exhausted its political and organizational purposes, and that it was now appropriate to consider it a complete and final withdrawal from the democratic civil movement.
MP Abdel Moneim Imam, the party leader, commented on the decision, saying: “Honoring the dead means burying them.”
The party called on the parties involved in this experiment to objectively evaluate its progress and future, explaining that preserving the movement’s credibility requires serious consideration of ending the experiment in its current form instead of a formal continuation that no longer reflects its reality.
He stressed that “an organized and responsible solution may be more respectful of the movement’s legacy than maintaining an entity that has lost its ability to act and influence.”
He stressed that he would remain open to any serious efforts to build alliances or common working spaces between civil and reformist forces, provided that they are based on clear positions and programs and a commitment to the interests of the Egyptian citizen, away from exaggeration or misinformation, and in a way that contributes to providing realistic alternatives that support the path of political and economic reform.
The statement from Qurtam Palace marked the end of a series of disputes that plagued the movement, beginning with the division of its members in the dispute that arose between former Minister of Manpower Kamal Abu Eita and publisher Hisham Qassem, after the latter decided to sue the former and accuse him of slander and defamation, which led to Qassem being sentenced to months in prison.
The Qurtam Palace statement marked the end of a series of disputes that plagued the movement, beginning with the split among its members in the conflict between former Minister of Manpower Kamal Abu Eita and publisher Hisham Qassem.
This was not the only disagreement that plagued the movement. With the launch of the national dialogue called for by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the leftist and nationalist parties adhered to the conditions set by the movement for participating in the dialogue, while the liberal parties refused to withdraw from the dialogue.
The dispute between Nasserists and leftists on one side and liberals on the other was renewed with the start of the last presidential elections. While the opposition left supported Ahmed Tantawi, the Egyptian Democratic Party announced that it would put forward its leader, Farid Zahran, and the Constitution Party put forward its leader, Jamila Ismail, who was unable to collect the required endorsements to run in the elections, while Zahran ran in the elections after obtaining the endorsement of a number of members of the House of Representatives.
The biggest disagreement that the movement witnessed was from the last parliamentary elections, where the Egyptian Democratic Party and the Justice Party raised the slogan of “the available space” and decided to run in the elections on the pro-government lists, while other liberal parties announced the establishment of the Liberal Alliance, while the leftist and Nasserist parties launched the Popular Front for Social Justice “People’s Right”.
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