On 30 June 2013, millions of Egyptians poured into the streets asking for the stepping down of the first democratically elected President of Egypt — the Islamist Mohamed Morsi. Simultaneously, Morsi’s supporters encamped in two squares in Cairo to object to the calls for his removal. The police and army carefully protected, and even encouraged, anti-Morsi demonstrators. Egypt’s Minister of Defence at that time — Abdel Fattah al-Sisi — issued an ultimatum to the political forces to settle their disagreements. On 3 July 2013, the Minister of Defence announced the ousting of President Morsi and the appointment of the Head of the Constitutional Court as an interim President. Morsi was kept in an unknown location and most of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood were held in custody. Within a month, the encampments of the pro-Morsi supporters had been brutally dispersed. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi became President of Egypt one year later via very controversial elections. The degree of repression and persecution to opponents of the regime is far worse than during Mubarak’s era. For more details, see Emad Shahin, ‘A Bitter Year: Egypt After the Coup’, Middle East Eye (3 July 2014), available online at http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/bitter-year-egypt-after-coup-1375218562 (retrieved 25 November 2014).

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A youth movement appeared by May 2013, which started collecting signatures calling for early presidential elections. The movement played a key role in mobilizing the protest of 30 June 2013. The main youth figures of the movement are now among the biggest supporters of the Egyptian Army and Field Marshal Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.