Though President Mohamed Morsy’s televised address on Wednesday strongly indicated that he still intends to cling to power, as he refused to offer serious concessions to calm public ire, Thursday’s papers stress that the collapse of the Morsy’s reign is the only fate the Muslim Brotherhood would face after the 48-hour ultimatum come to an end.
“Today…sacking or resignation,” reads red, bold headline at the top of flagship state-owned paper Al-Ahram. Privately-owned daily Al-Dostour echoes the sentiment in one of its manifesto style headlines, “The group’s regime takes its last breath.”
Privately-owned Al-Tahrir reports that the suggested roadmap for the future of Egypt that is supposed to be enforced by the military upon the president’s resignation.
The paper quotes General Adel Al-Morsi, former head of judiciary authority in the military, as saying that according to the constitution; a new presidency council would be formed to function temporary as the role of the president. He adds that the head of the Constitutional Court would rule instead of the president and would have the legitimacy for releasing constitutional declarations.
Privately-owned Al-Shorouk quotes a military source who stressed that former military chief-of-staff Sami Anan’s name is completely taken out of consideration as a new prime minister to fence off any accusations of military coup. The source added that Kamal al-Ganzouri is at the top of the list of candidates.
The liberal opposition Wafd Party’s paper Al-Wafd reports the same details on the military supervised roadmap published in other dailies. A substantial note, however, is added claiming that new presidential elections would be held after a transition period scheduled to last 12 months.
The paper also publishes exclusive news stating that the presidency held a closed meeting with a number of senior members of the military on Tuesday in which they reached an agreement on the resignation of the president. However, Morsy reportedly backed away from the decision at the last minute and decided to make a last-ditch attempt to stay in office by delivering a speech to the nation.
Al-Wafd features an eyebrow-raising report stating that Pakinam al-Sharkawy, political affairs assistant to the Egyptian president, announced that U.S. President Barack Obama asked Morsy to step down to avoid bloodshed. But Morsy categorically refused to give a ground on the pretext that he still has the legitimacy. The story stops at Sharkawy’s provocative statement while failing to mention the source and timing these words were issued.
An exact opposite image is shown by the daily Freedom and Justice, the mouthpiece of the Brotherhood’s political party. At the bottom of its front-page, the paper writes that millions flooded Rabaa al-Adawaya Square following the president’s speech demanding him to stay in office for the next seven years.
The paper insists on bending over backwards to solely voice the Brotherhood’s views while blatantly turning a blind eye to the majority opinion of the Egyptian people who have waved a "red card" for Morsy to step down.
The inside pages of the paper are scattered with a plethora of pictures of Morsy backers in Rabaa al-Adaweya square, the surrounding area of the mosque and other governorates, while the massive protests of Tahrir Square and Ettihadiya Palace are not shown at all.
Additionally, an entire page is dedicated for a picture of the president shown waving for his supporters under a bold headline reading: “Legitimacy is a red line.”
