The latest news on this front comes from a really interesting article by Democracy Digest.

Chaotic protests across Egypt this weekend — prompted by videos exposing corruption in President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s military-backed government — underscore the population’s weariness with economic hardship due in part to government austerity measures, according to a prominent analyst.

Why it matters: While Sisi markets Egypt as an island of stability in a turbulent region, popular dissatisfaction with his regime threatens that image, notes Michele Dunne,* an expert on political and economic change in Arab countries, particularly Egypt, as well as U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Nearly all political and social movements active before the coup have been crushed, leaving few leaders to formulate coherent protest demands or to negotiate with the military and security apparatus, she writes for the Carnegie Endowment:

Between the lines: While Sisi has sharply increased the military’s share of economic activity and political power, those benefits fall unequally, giving rise to internal power struggles. This has led some Egyptians to speculate that factions within the military or intelligence services may have encouraged releasing evidence of corruption, potentially for their own gain.

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