A photo from the meeting at Al-Karma party in Cairo on Wednesday (Photo: The popular alliance socialist party)
A group of Egyptian left-wing, liberal parties and public figures have established a new political movement that "supports democracy and social justice" and aims to “face the deteriorating situation of the country,” the Karama Party and the Popular Socialist Alliance Party announced in a joint press conference on Wednesday.
The Civil Democratic Movement was launched with eight political parties and more than 140 public figures.
The movement comprises politicians, economists and intellectuals including former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi, political activist George Ishak, award-winning novelist Ibrahim Abdel-Magid and former head of the Accountability State Authority Hisham Geneina.
The Reform and Development Party, the Popular Socialist Alliance Party, Al-Dostor Party, Al-Adl Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, Al-Karama Party, Masr El-Horreya Party, the Bread and Freedom Party are part of the Civil Democratic Movement, which was launched after a meeting at the headquarters of Al-Karama Party.
The principles and demands of the movement included the foundation of a modern civilian democratic state based on citizenship, constitution and law that has no discrimination between its citizens, whether on the basis of religion, class, race or gender.
The movement's principles include protecting the freedom of thought, expression, organisation and peaceful protest; achieving the minimum level of social and economic rights; and facing corruption by applying transparency and democratic accountability through elected legislative and local councils, free media and independent supervisory boards.
The movement also called for the immediate release of prisoners jailed for peaceful protesting; it also called for amending pre-trial detention and protest laws in accordance with the Egyptian constitution.
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