Fireworks burst over opponents of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 2, 2013. Photograph: Amr Nabil/AP
Crowds in Tahrir Square cheered and launched fireworks after the military announced Mohamed Morsi has been ousted as president and replaced by the chief justice of the constitutional court. In a televised statement, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the constitution will be suspended. He also called for presidential and parliamentary elections, and said the post-Morsi roadmap had been agreed on in consultation with various political groups. "All necessary measures will be taken to empower youth in civic dialogue and national reconciliation," al-Sisi said. The plan calls for the temporary institution of a technocrat government. The chief justice of the constitutional court will lead the country in the interim. On Facebook, Morsi denounced the move as a "military coup." Muslim Brotherhood leadership has confirmed to CNN that President Mohamed Morsi has been placed under “house arrest,” along with his presidential team.
The gradual nature of Sisi's actions seemed to confirm the army's desire to be seen to be answering the will of the people, rather than enacting a unilateral coup.
Events indicated a rehabilitation of not just the army – whose chequered 15-month tenure in office between February 2011 and June 2012 prompted unprecedented criticism of the military – but the police, whose reputation took a battering in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising. The police piggybacked on the popularity of the protests, releasing two statements backing the protests against the president.
Islamists saw Morsi's removal as a betrayal of democracy. But for many in Tahrir it was a victory for people power.
For Mr. Morsi, it was a bitter and ignominious end to
a tumultuous year of bruising political battles that ultimately alienated
millions of Egyptians. Having won a narrow victory, his critics say, he broke
his promises of an inclusive government and repeatedly demonized his opposition
as traitors. With the economy crumbling, and with shortages of electricity and
fuel, anger at the government mounted.
...in a sign of how little Mr. Morsi ever managed to control the Mubarak
bureaucracy he took over, the officers of the Presidential Guard who had been
assigned to protect him also burst into celebration, waving flags from the roof
of the palace.
The general stood on a broad stage, flanked by Egypt’s
top Muslim and Christian clerics as well as a spectrum of political leaders
including Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Prize-winning diplomat and liberal icon,
and Galal Morra, a prominent Islamist ultraconservative, or Salafi, all of whom
endorsed the takeover.
Although the tacit control of the generals over
Egyptian politics is now unmistakable, General Sisi laid out a more detailed and
faster plan for a return to civilian governance than the now-retired generals
who deposed Mr. Mubarak did two years ago. The chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adli Mansour, would
become acting president. General Sisi made no mention of any
period of military rule and granted the acting president, Mr. Mansour, the power
to issue “constitutional decrees” during the transition.
Mr. Mansour was named to the bench by Mr. Mubarak two
decades ago, before Mr. Mubarak sought to pack the court with more overtly
political loyalists or anti-Islamists.
The general’s plan bore a close resemblance to one
proposed in recent days by the ultraconservative Islamist Nour Party, and
suggested that he was seeking to bring in at least some Islamists as well as
liberals and leftists to support the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood. The
Nour Party, which quickly endorsed the plan, had joined other political groups
in accusing Mr. Morsi and the Brotherhood of monopolizing power at the price of
a dangerous political polarization.
But unlike liberals, the ultraconservative Islamists
were keen to avoid the installation of a liberal like Mr. ElBaradei as a
transitional prime minister, or to see the current Constitution — with its
prominent recognition of Islamic law — scrapped instead of revised. It was
unclear if the generals planned to allow the Brotherhood to compete in
parliamentary elections and potentially retake its dominant role in the
legislature, which could give it the ability to name a new prime minister.