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| 'We want bread': subsidy cut sparks protests across Egypt | 'We want bread': subsidy cut sparks protests across Egypt |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Some of Egypt’s major cities have been paralysed by rare protests in response to a cut in bread subsidies. | Some of Egypt’s major cities have been paralysed by rare protests in response to a cut in bread subsidies. |
| The country’s ministry of supply reduced the state-sponsored provision of bread of up to 4,000 to 500 loaves per bakery, according to local news reports. | The country’s ministry of supply reduced the state-sponsored provision of bread of up to 4,000 to 500 loaves per bakery, according to local news reports. |
| The move is designed to replace an earlier and more controversial proposal to cut the supply from five loaves per person per day to three. | |
| But while the cuts are unlikely to have a dramatic affect on the bread rations of the average citizen, the suggestion struck a nerve among the Egyptian public. In response to the decision, hundreds of Egypt’s poorest citizens filled the streets in the cities of Alexandria and Giza, and the towns of Kafr el-Sheikh and Minya. Roads were blocked and residents surrounded government buildings. | |
| One protest in Alexandria showed people chanting “we want bread” and “everything but a loaf”, according to video footage taken by protesters. The hashtag “supply uprising” trended on Twitter across Egypt on Tuesday. | One protest in Alexandria showed people chanting “we want bread” and “everything but a loaf”, according to video footage taken by protesters. The hashtag “supply uprising” trended on Twitter across Egypt on Tuesday. |
| The protests come as the cost of living for the average Egyptian rises rapidly. Egypt devalued its currency and cut fuel subsidies in November, prompting the value of the Egyptian pound to halve and leading to queues of furious citizens at petrol stations. | The protests come as the cost of living for the average Egyptian rises rapidly. Egypt devalued its currency and cut fuel subsidies in November, prompting the value of the Egyptian pound to halve and leading to queues of furious citizens at petrol stations. |
| The cuts are intended to overhaul Egypt’s moribund economy in order to receive a $12bn loan from the International Monetary Fund. | The cuts are intended to overhaul Egypt’s moribund economy in order to receive a $12bn loan from the International Monetary Fund. |
| But bread subsidies are considered as a red line among Egyptians, a staple on the plate of every family, whether rich or poor. | |
| Protests reported in several cities against the new decision of supply minister regarding bread distribution #EgyptRemember 18 Jan 1977? pic.twitter.com/8fJXhCE1qW | Protests reported in several cities against the new decision of supply minister regarding bread distribution #EgyptRemember 18 Jan 1977? pic.twitter.com/8fJXhCE1qW |
| Egyptians have protested over bread many times in the country’s history, most recently during the 2011 revolution when the chant “bread, freedom and social justice” was the rallying call for mass protests. The government, under president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, defended the cut to bread subsidies as a necessary step to fight corruption within the system, and stressed it would probably affect bakeries, not individuals. | |
| “[We] will not touch the share of bread for citizens under any circumstances,” the minister of supply, Ali Moselhy, told a press conference on Tuesday. The governor of Alexandria, the city at the heart of the protests, later increased the supply of loaves to 2,000 per bakery eligible for subsidies. | |
| Timothy E Kaldas, an analyst at the Washington-based thinktank the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, said the IMF deal did not include a reduction to food subsidies. | |
| Kaldas said such cuts may be necessary to fight rampant corruption in Egypt’s wheat industry but that the government failed to properly explain the move. “The problem is that they offered no information and then left people to make their own conclusions,” he said. | |
| The Arab world’s most populous nation has witnessed frequent outbursts of anger against rising living costs since an economic crisis engulfed the country in 2016. Last October, a taxi driver self-immolated in Alexandria after accusing government officials of being responsible for heightened living costs. | |
| Two days earlier, a video of an unnamed tuk-tuk driver ranting about the economy went viral: “On television, we see a picture of Egypt that’s like Vienna – but when we get out into the street we see a cousin of Somalia … the poor citizen can’t find one kilogram of rice on the street,” he said. | Two days earlier, a video of an unnamed tuk-tuk driver ranting about the economy went viral: “On television, we see a picture of Egypt that’s like Vienna – but when we get out into the street we see a cousin of Somalia … the poor citizen can’t find one kilogram of rice on the street,” he said. |