A Civil Democratic Movement meeting on Sunday evening to restructure the coalition and chart its future erupted into a heated exchange, with participants raising their voices and one attendee leaving the room carrying a handgun.
Disputes within the Civil Democratic Movement have escalated recently following a statement it issued over the Irrigation Ministry’s demolition of a Nile Corniche mansion in Giza belonging to Akmal Kortam, chairman of the Conservative Party, and later apologized for. Movement sources told Al Manassa at the time that the statement had been issued without consensus, before parties announced their withdrawal from the coalition or suspension of their activities within it.
Al Manassa was at the Socialist Popular Alliance Party headquarters to cover the meeting, which was called to discuss proposals for restructuring the Civil Democratic Movement and finalize its organizational structure for the coming period. Organizers, however, asked journalists to wait outside the meeting room.
Al Manassa saw Abdel Nasser Mo’men, a member of the nascent Democratic Front Party, leave the meeting carrying a handgun. Mo’men told journalists present that the weapon was licensed.
Two attendees declined to tell Al Manassa what the dispute was about or whether Mo’men had threatened anyone at the meeting with the weapon. Mo’men himself denied the incident entirely, saying it had not happened and insisting he was “a very peaceful person.”
Asked what happened inside the meeting, Mo’men said participants had disagreed over a proposal by Akram Ismail, head of the Civil Democratic Movement restructuring committee, to create numerous committees, which he said would burden the movement and complicate its decision-making process.
Sayed El-Toukhy, chairman of the Karama Party, told Al Manassa that Mo’men’s weapon had nothing to do with any dispute at the meeting. “Abdel Nasser routinely carries his weapon, and after the meeting someone asked him, ‘What’s that?’ just as a joke,” he said.
El-Toukhy said the disagreements at the meeting did not amount to heated arguments, adding that “some participants just naturally have somewhat loud voices.”
After the meeting, Ismail said the movement would spend the next two weeks considering all comments on the proposed document, with the aim of producing a final draft that commands broader agreement among its members.
Ismail told Al Manassa that representatives of the Coordination Committee taking part in Sunday’s meeting and the next one, along with the parties, would form part of the movement’s organizational levels under the proposed new structure.
The movement had previously set itself a deadline to complete the restructuring but failed to adopt a final plan by then.
Asked about missing the deadline, Ismail said the restructuring committee had already submitted its proposal to the movement and received a number of comments.
He said the comments ranged from minor issues to questions about the movement’s messaging and tasks, as well as procedural and substantive points. But he said he did not believe any amounted to a major dispute that could not be resolved within the movement.
Hamdy Qeshta, a member of the restructuring committee, told Al Manassa that the movement now had two weeks to approve its final structure, stressing that the process needed to be completed before the next meeting, scheduled for Aug. 23.
The Civil Democratic Movement was formed in 2017 as a coalition of civil opposition parties, united by a commitment to upholding the goals of the January revolution and building a modern, democratic state.
