A group of politicians in Egypt has begun laying the groundwork for a new political party that seeks to reintroduce figures associated with the 25 January Revolution into formal politics. Among the most prominent are economist Raied Salama and political activist Yasser El-Hawary.
Speaking to Al Manassa, El-Hawary said the party—currently being established under Salama’s leadership—brings together political actors who are “committed to developing a different kind of political project for the coming period”.
Salama, an economist, was released by the public prosecution in 2019 after spending nearly ten months in pretrial detention. He had been accused of “joining a terrorist group to help achieve its goals, receiving funding for a terrorist purpose, and participating in a criminal agreement with the intent of committing a terrorist act”.
More recently, he took part in the state-led National Dialogue, where he served as assistant rapporteur on the Committee on Inflation and Rising Prices, one of the economic subcommittees involved in the process.
El-Hawary, who has taken up the post of secretary general in the nascent party, was among the co-founders of the Constitution Party following the 2011 revolution. He left Egypt after the events of 30 June 2013 but returned roughly four years ago, resuming his political activities and contributing to the National Dialogue.
The party, he said, will take its cues from a social democratic tradition, but intends to chart a distinct path. “It’s not the same as the Egyptian Social Democratic Party,” he explained, noting that “it leans further to the left, by nature of its formation—and its current president, Farid Zahran, comes from a long history of leftist activism.” By contrast, El-Hawary argued, liberal parties “tilt more to the right”. The aim, he said, is for the new party—called Al Taqaddom (Progress)—to occupy a “space that is largely unrepresented” in Egyptian politics.
According to El-Hawary, the party also seeks to foreground what he described as the “revival of Egyptian identity”—a theme he said is “not sufficiently addressed” by other political formations and is “deeply embedded” in the party’s own outlook.
Commenting on the decision to launch the party just months before Egypt’s upcoming parliamentary elections, El-Hawary insisted that “the objective is a political project—not simply to gather people to contest elections and win seats in Parliament.”
That said, the party does plan to take part in the elections. “We’ll try to be present,” he said, expressing openness to joining a unified electoral list. “I supported proportional lists during the National Dialogue,” he noted, “but at the end of the day, we have to work within the existing system.”
He cited the experience of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, whose MPs currently serve in Parliament via a unified list. “Hold me accountable for what I say—judge me inside Parliament by what I stand up and say.”
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place before the end of this year, in accordance with Article 106 of the constitution, which stipulates that elections must be held within the sixty days preceding the end of the sitting Parliament’s term, currently set to expire on Jan. 12, 2026.
The House of Representatives includes 568 seats, of which 28 are appointed by the president. The remainder are split evenly between closed party lists and individual candidacies.
