Political opposition parties are forming a new alliance led by Aboul Fotouh before the fourth anniversary of the 25 January revolution to offer a political alternative to the current regime.
Sources close to the group, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the alliance would be called “The 25 January Salvation Front” and would work on recovering the goals of the revolution.
They said it would include the Strong Egypt Party, the Ghad Al-Thawra Party and the Salafi Al-Wasat and Al-Watan parties, in addition to the Young Socialists Movement, the Cairo Statement Council and the Youth against the Coup Movement, while negotiations are underway with the April 6 Youth Movement and the Constitution and the Socialist parties.
They also said it would include public figures like Selim al-Awa and Abdallah al-Ashaal, the 2013 presidential candidates, Ayman Nour, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, Seif Abdel Fattah and Hassan Nafea, while negotiations are underway with activists like Ahmed Harara, Khaled Ali, Bilal Fadl, Mostafa al-Nagar and Amr Hamzawy.
The sources added that several meetings were held in the past two weeks at the headquarters of the Wasat Party in Mokattam, where it was agreed that Aboul Fotouh should head the new alliance sometime in November.
They said the alliance would demand the release of all rebels, including the Muslim Brotherhood members who were not involved in acts of violence.
They said the April 6 Movement requested that the alliance should not raise any Brotherhood slogans or demand the return of Mohamed Morsy, which the Wasat Party agreed to because this was the reason it withdrew from the National Alliance to Support Legitimacy in the first place.
They said the Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party will not be part of the new alliance because they insist on the legitimacy of Morsy.
Amr Emara, coordinator of the Brotherhood Dissidents Movement, said the new alliance be a “headache” for the regime.
Anas Abdallah of the Brotherhood Youth Movement said the group will not abandon its call for legitimacy and retribution for the martyrs of the Rabaa sit-in. “We will join no alliance that does not call for this,” he said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
