Who leads the revolt? And who could, if the Egyptian president was leaving office, driving the transition? A week after the start of the protest movement, and while tens of thousands of protesters again gathered Tuesday in downtown Cairo to demand the departure of Hosni Mubarak, no leader has yet to embody the imposed alternative.
"Most opposition parties have very limited ability to mobilize," says Nadim Shehadi, an expert member of the think tank Chatham House in London. These events are not run by the opposition but from the street.The traditional opposition parties have never been at the forefront of this movement. "
Young online activists, spearheaded the protest
According to Nadim Shehadi, the opposition would, however, currently structured. The older generation, fragmented and repressed, joined youth groups cyberactivists who stormed the Web to shake a moribund political landscape for nearly three decades.
Among this new generation of opponents, the Movement of 6 April is one of the main actors of the protest movement, said Samir Shehata, Center for Contemporary Studies in the Arab world of Georgetown University.This movement emerged in 2008 in the wake of the revolt of cotton workers.
Samir Shehata also cites the Kifaya, or Egyptian Movement for Change, one of the spearheads of the dispute. This group, which brings together activists from various trends, emerged in July 2004, launching a campaign against Hosni Mubarak. Kifaya members were particularly far mobilized against the prospect of succession to power of Gamal Mubarak, son of the president.
Kifaya is Arabic for "Enough."A message that resonated in the streets of Cairo and other cities of Egypt such as Cairo or Alexandria, in recent days.
Mohamed el-Baradei, figurehead activists
January 27, Mohamed el-Baradei himself left Vienna, Austria, where he resides, and to return to Egypt to join the protest. The former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which suggested that the transition is a recognized and respected figure on the international scene, but credibility in the local scene is more difficult to establish .
"I think the influence of Mohamed el-Baradei is minimal, said Nadim Shehadi.Before these events, his popularity was very low and his chances of being elected very limited. "
Mohamed ElBaradei, however, an obvious figurehead for the network of activists behind the protest. His National Association for Change, a nonpartisan coalition founded a year ago, rallied all the opposition groups, including the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, officially banned but tolerated by the regime.
Shortly after the arrival of Mohamed ElBaradei last week, the Muslim Brotherhood said they were seeking to form a broad political committee with the former diplomat.Speaking to a crowd at Tahrir Square in Cairo on Sunday night, one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and former MP, Mohammed el-Beltagui said the move "argued Mohamed el-Baradei to drive change." "We're trying to establish a democratic arena, before they can begin to play inside," he added.
The Muslim Brotherhood, a strong presence in the streets since the beginning of the dispute, have networks of charitable associations, schools and hospitals, enabling them to establish their influence in the vast lower class.
A committee of ten persons to lead the transition
Other representatives of the opposition were quick to join Mohamed el-Baradei.Among them, the liberal Wafd party, a great nationalist party founded in 1919 but which now has only a limited audience, the dissident Ayman Nour, who came in second place far behind Hosni Mubarak in the presidential election of 2005; or Osama al-Ghazali Harb, president of the Democratic Front.
According to the U.S. daily The New York Times, the new generation of online activists and opponents older held since Sunday a series of meetings to try to plan a response to a motion. Nadim Shehata says that this coalition has agreed on a list of ten names, including Mohamed ElBaradei, Ayman Nour and Osama al-Ghazali Harb.This committee would lead a unity government if President Hosni Mubarak left the office.
"Young people continue to pursue these discussions," says New York Times Ibrahim Issa, a prominent intellectual of the opposition.
If all these opponents want the departure of the Egyptian president, remains to agree on how to use. Monday, they certainly all called for "a million march" held Tuesday.
