El-Sisi Challenge Grows as Egypt Bureaucrats Oppose Pay Cuts

Amina Mostafa voted for Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi last year, seeing a “strong man” who could take Egypt forward. But after his government moved to cut the wage bill for six million state employees, she took to the streets in protest.

“I have financial commitments and prices are soaring, if the dignity of state employees is lost then what’s left of this country?” 42-year-old Mostafa, who works at the National Social Insurance Authority, said at an Aug. 10 rally in Cairo attended by about 2,000 civil servants. The demonstration was the biggest outpouring of discontent with the government’s economic policies during El-Sisi’s 14 months in office.