Government, Brotherhood fail to attract Egyptian youth
Both the current Egyptian authorities and the Muslim Brotherhood have failed to attract the support of the youth, while women participated in the recent referendum to support stability.
The youth are the ones who launched Egypt’s January 25 Revolution. Furthermore, they influenced, in one way or another, the regimes that came after the revolution, and they led the deposition of elected President Mohammed Morsi. Despite this, their turnout in the constitutional referendum held Jan. 14-15 was markedly low. This confused the state apparatus in Egypt, but was welcomed by the Muslim Brotherhood, who attempted to win the youth over in their battle with the regime.
On the third anniversary of the revolution, many youth took to the streets, protesting against the current regime with the same slogans they used on Jan. 25, 2011. These slogans include: "Bread, freedom, social justice" and "The people want to overthrow the regime." They also added chants of "Down with military rule." Yet, after violent confrontations between the police and demonstrators left 62 dead, the youth decided to protest on the anniversary of Jan. 28, 2011, which was called the "Friday of Anger."
The government rushed to discuss the issue of the low participation of youth in the referendum and how to get them on their side, amid fears that they would take to the streets in large protests against the current regime or join the Muslim Brotherhood.
Thus, this issued was discussed in the last cabinet meeting on Jan. 18. Moreover, on Jan. 20 Interim President Adly Mansour received at the presidential palace 44 young people from different political movements, after a meeting was held between the minister of interior and a youth delegation.
