Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi increased the influence of his Muslim Brotherhood over government in a Cabinet reshuffle that replaced two ministers involved in crucial talks with the International Monetary Fund over a $4.8 billion loan.
The changes fell well short of the opposition’s demand for a complete overhaul of Prime Minister Hisham Kandil’s administration and installing a neutral Cabinet to oversee parliamentary elections later this year.
It looked unlikely to help build the political consensus the IMF is seeking for reforms needed to secure a loan seen as vital to easing Egypt’s deep economic crisis – an unaffordable budget deficit and a plunge in the value of its currency. The government is struggling to seal a deal that would require it to implement austerity measures.
Kandil, a technocrat appointed premier last year, named nine new ministers. They included Amr Darrag, a senior official in the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, as planning minister. The outgoing minister, Ashraf al-Arabi, had played a central role in the IMF talks.
Another Brotherhood member, Yehya Hamed, was named investment minister, and Ahmed el-Gezawi, an FJP member, took over agriculture, lifting the movement’s share to around a third of the Cabinet’s 35 portfolios.
Fayyad Abdel Moneim, a specialist in Islamic economics, was appointed as finance minister, replacing Al-Morsi Al-Sayed Hegazy, another expert on Islamic finance who was appointed in January – the last time Kandil reshuffled the Cabinet.
“The reshuffle is unlikely to signal any real shift in policy, particularly from an economic perspective,” Said Hirsh, a London-based economist, said.
“If anything it deals a blow to demands for political consensus which the government seems to have ignored.”
The changes underscored the polarised state of an Egyptian political scene split between Morsi and his Islamist allies and opposition parties that accuse him and the Brotherhood of trying to dominate the post-Hosni Mubarak order.
The United States, which gives Egypt $1.3 billion in military aid each year, has grown more critical of Morsi of late, listing a lack of political inclusivity as a concern.