Twitterati take sides on Sisi’s leadership

cairo — Tens of thousands of Egyptians have set social media alight with tweets on opposing hashtags, one calling on President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to resign and another praising his leadership.

The hashtags surfaced after a recent wave of steep price hikes for fuel, drinking water and electricity was introduced by the government as part of austerity measures designed to overhaul the economy, which is still recovering from a costly 2011 popular uprising. The hikes were announced as Egyptians were celebrating Eid Al Fitr holiday, a move believed to be designed to minimise chances of protests.

Frustration deepened last week after Egypt’s national soccer team, competing in the World Cup for the first time since 1990, failed to advance after only two matches. The hashtags have picked up since, making it Twitter’s top trending list in Egypt for days. But by Saturday, the one calling on El Sisi to leave office carried over 279,000 tweets. The opposing hashtag had a much lower figure of more than 48,000.

“No freedom, no justice, no education, no country, no humanity ... it’s the time to go away!!!,” one user posted on the hashtag asking El Sisi to leave, which is translated from Arabic as #Sisi—leave.

Meanwhile, other users flooded the hashtag praising the president #myleaderisSisiandproud with flattery and adulation.

Economic reforms and tough austerity measures started shortly after El Sisi took office in 2014 but have been accelerating recently and have hit poor and middleclass Egyptians especially hard. El Sisi, who led the 2013 military overthrow of elected president Mohammed Mursi, has urged Egyptians to be patient as the reforms take effect.

“If we want to become a real nation, we must suffer pain and endure hardships,” El Sisi said. “We have to pay the price together.”