How Is Sisi Calling on Egyptians to Austerity While He Lives a Luxurious Life?
On Sunday, January 2, 2022, the Egyptian Ministry of Supply announced the gradual lifting of subsidies on the bread system by fiscal year 2022-2023.
A week before this statement was published, Sisi was more explicit on raising the cost of living for the Egyptian citizens.
During one of his conferences, Sisi rejected the owner of a contracting company's request to give middle-income workers a reward of between 150 and 200 pounds, as they came from the provinces of far-governorates to work in Upper Egypt.
Sisi replied: "I do not dedicate nor give anyone money, and I don’t care about anyone. Go talk to the prime minister, because I don't have money for anyone."
This comes days after Sisi said the government would not grant ration cards to newlyweds, adding that they should no longer expect the state to feed their children.
Sisi has always announced that the state is broke, with little budget to support the citizens financially, convincing citizens that he can’t give money to people.
But on December 29, 2021, the British website Middle East Monitor published a report on the extravagance of the head of the coup authority Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as he tightens austerity measures on Egyptians, entitled Egypt's Sisi leads a luxurious life despite austerity measures.
Luxuries President
According to MEMO, a few months ago, Sisi bought a giant Boeing B747-8 luxury plane, a Jumbo Jet, which costs about $418 million to replace the current presidential aircraft.
“Sisi's new plane has been in Boeing's airfields since 2012 after the German company Lufthansa cancelled its purchase order, as it was part of a deal concluded by Lufthansa with Boeing to supply it with 20 planes. The German company accepted 19 of them and rejected this plane,” MEMO reported.
Paradoxically, the value of this plane is slightly less than the price of 14 jets purchased by the presidency during the 30-year reign of the former president Hosni Mubarak.
“This is the fifth presidential plane Sisi has purchased since he took office. He had previously purchased four luxury planes in 2016 of the ‘Falcon-7X’ model produced by the French company Dassault Aviation, in a deal worth €300 million ($354 million).”
This deal was concluded while Egypt is facing a severe economic crisis. Only three months before, the government decided to liberalize the pound's exchange rate, raise the prices of petroleum products, and lift subsidies on electricity and other essential materials in November 2016.
“Thus, during only seven years, during the period of his rule, Sisi has bought planes worth $774 million. He comes to reduce the ration and bread subsidies on the pretext that there is no money, asking the people to bear it, but he cannot bear to use presidential planes dating back to the eras of previous regimes,” MEMO added.
New Palaces
In addition to the expensive planes, Sisi has built at least three new presidential palaces and more than ten presidential villas to be added to the 30 historic palaces and presidential rest houses that Egypt already owns.
“The massive Sisi Palace complex that is being built in the New Administrative Capital covers about 2.5 million square meters. This entire area is equivalent to approximately 607 feddans (625.2 acres) of agricultural land. As for the presidential residence, it is estimated to be around 50,000 square meters, ten times the size of the White House, which is only 5,000 square meters,” MEMO mentioned.
Sisi is building another luxurious palace, in the style of the White House, on the seashore in the new city of el-Alamein, which he decided to make as a summer resort for the government to enjoy the cool Mediterranean air, instead of the hot atmosphere of Cairo.
Sisi built the third palace at the beginning of his reign in the military district of Hykestep. It is a luxurious palace containing an airstrip, green gardens and administrative buildings. Next to it are four luxurious villas containing private swimming pools that were said to be dedicated to Sisi's senior military aides.
In 2019, Egyptian whistleblower Mohamed Ali exposed the amounts of money spent on Sisi’s personal wealth. He talked about spending billions of pounds of public money on presidential palaces for Sisi and his wife, while making official statements of shortage of budget and insufficiency of taxes.
As a consequence, Mohamed Ali’s videos sparked widespread anger, which prompted rare street protests against Sisi.
Following these demonstrations, Sisi did not deny that he built all these palaces. In a speech delivered on September 14, 2019, he admitted: "Yes, we have built palaces and will build more but not for myself. I'm working to build a new Egypt."
Failed State
On different occasions, Sisi described Egypt as a "failed state," a "semi-state" and a "remnant of a state," referring to the January 2011’s revolution, and calling for building a powerful state.
However, in 2020, activists circulated a large-scale leak attributed to Abdul Rahim Ali, a well-known Egyptian presenter who has close ties to Sisi and his regime, in which he talks with his son-in-law, Counselor Majed Munjid, the judge of the State Council.
During the call, Ali insulted the Egyptian state and its law, affirming that he is "above it," as he challenged President Sisi, that he himself cannot be held accountable or tried.
Continuing to emphasize that he is not subject to the law, Ali said that he possesses documents and leaks that make him "above the law," again insulting the law in vulgar terms.
“I am Abdul Rahim Ali; the president of the republic does not know the prosecution. I have to divorce from my house. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi does not know (he cannot) bring me (he takes me to) the Public Prosecution.”
He went on to say, "I have my affliction. If you get it out, I can lock them all." He boasted of his favor with the security leaders, saying, "I answer the director of security at the end of my house when I like to make a report…This is the director of the General Intelligence coming here to reconcile with me," he said.
