CAIRO (MCT) — As deadly clashes intensified Monday between thousands of protesters and riot police, Egypt’s interim government offered to resign in an attempt to calm three consecutive days of unrest that have shaken the country ahead of next week’s parliamentary elections.
It was unclear if the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces would accept the Cabinet’s offer to step aside, which would severely undermine the military’s legitimacy. It was unlikely that resignations would have appeased protesters whose main target of derision has been the ruling generals and their refusal to hand power over to a new democracy.
The interim government led by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, who has offered to step down before, was installed in March and quickly fell out of favor with activists and political groups. The violence, which so far has killed at least 24 people and injured more than 1,400, has further unnerved a nation whose democratic ambitions after the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February have been stalled.
The scene in the square for much of Monday was reminiscent of last winter’s uprising, but it was more sullen, lacking the infectious enthusiasm that swept through the crowds during the final days of Mubarak’s regime. In a sense, the military, revered by protesters in February as the protector of the revolution, had become the betrayer of Egypt’s “Arab Spring” by refusing to cede power to a civilian government.
