Mohammed Morsi agrees to scale back decree

In response to a violent public backlash, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has agreed to scale back a decree he issued that gave him what some have called dictator-like powers. The decree shielded Morsi’s edicts from judicial review and was, he argued, meant to protect the new government from pro-Mubarak officials still embedded in the judicial system. Under pressure from his own party, the Muslim Brotherhood, and resounding disapproval from the international community, Morsi met with senior judicial officials to revamp the decree. Now, while the majority of Morsi’s presidential actions will be subject to review by the courts, the portion of the edict that protects the constitutional council from being dissolved by the courts before it finishes its work will remain.

Ahmed Mekki, justice minister of Egypt and one of Morsi’s closest advisors, was instrumental in negotiating the compromise. “In his head, the president thought that this would push us forward, but then it was met with all this inflammation,” said Mekki. He blamed the catastrophic fallout from the decree on both the president for failing to consult political opponents before issuing it and on opponents for being unwilling to engage in open discussion, “I blame all of Egypt, because they do not know how to talk to each other.” Mekki has said that he believes the president was sincere in his desire to ease and hasten Egypt’s transition to a full democracy, as the decree was only meant to stay in place until a new parliament could be elected and the courts have taken a number of highly questionable actions against the new government already such as dissolving the Islamist-majority parliament elected earlier this year and considering legal challenges against the upper chamber of parliament and the assembly writing the country’s new constitution. However he added the decree itself was much too broad in its implications, “The means, the tools and the wording caused exactly the opposite of what was required.”